Ferrari just built a car nearly everyone seems to hate, and somehow the reservation books are filling up anyway. That alone is strange. But the reason behind those reservations has turned into a fight between Ferrari and a major financial news outlet, with the automaker now publicly denying a report about how the whole thing supposedly works.
The car at the center of all this is the Luce, Ferrari’s first-ever EV sport sedan. And the question isn’t really whether people are buying it. It’s why.
A Car the Internet Loved to Hate
When the Luce was revealed, the reaction was about as harsh as it gets. The blocky electric sedan did not win people over, and the criticism came fast and loud from nearly every corner of the enthusiast world. This was not a slow burn of mild disappointment. It was a pile-on.
The pile-on did not stop with fans and commenters either. Former Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo went after the car in public, suggesting Ferrari should just remove the prancing horse badge from it entirely. He also took a shot at its design by saying it was the kind of car the Chinese would never bother to copy. When a former CEO is talking like that about your new flagship EV, you have a problem on your hands.
The Numbers Don’t Match the Hate
Here’s where it gets interesting. Despite all that noise, Ferrari says reservations for the Luce are actually going well. Current CEO Benedetto Vigna has stated the car is drawing strong interest, pointing out that clients have already sent bank transfers and that the people who showed up wanted it.
That detail matters. Real money is moving for a car the public can’t stop dunking on. So either a lot of buyers genuinely love something the internet despises, or there’s another force at work behind those reservation slips.
The Report That Lit the Fuse
According to a report from Bloomberg, there might be a very specific reason wealthy clients are lining up for Ferrari’s most divisive product. The story claimed the Italian automaker was gently steering its customers toward buying the Luce, with a reward attached. Order the EV, and you move up the priority list when a new and far more exclusive model comes along.
Anyone who follows Ferrari knows this kind of hierarchy isn’t new. You can’t just walk in off the street and demand a hypercar. The brand makes buyers earn their way up by purchasing the more attainable models first, proving they’re worthy before the truly rare machines come into reach. The Bloomberg report essentially suggested the Luce had been slotted into that ladder as a stepping stone, which is a wild thing to ask given the car’s price.
The Customer Testimonials
The report didn’t stop at general claims. Ferrari unveiled the Luce at a launch event about a month ago, with roughly 1,600 clients in attendance, so there were plenty of conversations to draw from.
Per Bloomberg, one client was reportedly told he should buy the car if he wanted to hold onto his standing among the brand’s top customers. Newer clients were said to have been encouraged to pick up the Luce, or one of the cheaper models, as a way to unlock access to the higher-end stuff. Think of it like an entrance fee to the club, except this one runs north of $600,000. If accurate, that pressure would go a long way toward explaining why the Luce’s reservation books are reportedly full through 2027.
Ferrari Pushes Back Hard
And that’s where the story turns. Ferrari is now denying the Bloomberg report outright. According to The Drive, the company says the claim that buying a Luce grants access to special models or bumps existing customers up the waiting list is simply untrue.
Ferrari Chief Marketing Officer Enrico Galliera made it clear the company was not happy with the report. He pushed back by saying the article did not reflect reality and was completely incorrect. His core argument was that, from the very start, Ferrari told its clients the Luce was built for a different kind of buyer altogether. In other words, the car was never meant to be a backdoor into the F80 or the XX program. It was meant to stand on its own.
Who’s Right Here?
So now there are two versions of events sitting right next to each other. One says the Luce is being quietly used as a loyalty tax for the ultra-rich, a price of admission to keep your place in line. The other says that’s nonsense and the car was always aimed at a separate audience that wants it for what it is.
For buyers dropping six figures and up, the difference is not small. If the Luce is a genuine standalone Ferrari, then the strong reservations mean the haters were wrong about the market. If it’s really a stepping stone dressed up as a flagship, then those full order books say less about the car and more about how badly the one-percenters want first dibs on the next big thing. The two stories can’t both be true, and Ferrari clearly wants only one of them remembered.
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