The end of Ferrari, as we know it

You can still like/love something while simultaneously criticizing it.

 

Id never trust anyone who voted brown

 

Owning a Ferrari is a personal choice. Buy what you like. But promoting a transition technology that has most characteristics being negative to automotive enthusiasm is ill-placed. Spare us the environmental rants as well. Aside from being a lie, there are many Karens that hate we even own Ferraris at all. I like smoke, sound, smells, and light weight. Extra weight for an NA V12 is totally acceptable. Not for batteries although I'll bet some will spend a couple grand on titanium wheel bolts to save a few ounces off the 5,000 lbs. Someone even said that they are positive there will be pristine 296 in 100 years! Where will the batteries and high voltage electronics come from in 2122? What you do with old electronics is mostly throw them out.

 

Dead/end is not something I can exactly like or love, nor critique.

Unless you have a lot to talk about empty space?

 

Yes, that was my point yeah? As for the 296, it stinks, is the end of Ferrari.

 

Appreciate your comments. I never owned or drove a Mondial 8 (especially US spec)

Cheers

 

I sometimes have no idea where the future of collectibility is headed .
I’ve been pretty good so far but am playing with the old rules .
Who saw manual transmission mass produced manual V8 430s selling for equivalent prices as hand built 12 cylinder Boxers ? The super car of its time . Steel V6 Dino’s bring more . WTF ?!?!
That said sounds like the last of the NA Ferraris are headed towards to big values .
I saw the manual shift 599s headed towards glory but jumped in a few months late . Literally was bidding on the black one that broke the mold as they headed off to space .

 

Here is TopGears take on 'the end of Ferrari ...'

Of course he did not take into account the unique ability of Ferrari race strategists to screw up a race - are they taking advice from Haas?

 

Today's WSJ interview the CEO at Ferrari.


Inside Ferrari’s Plan to Enter the Electric-Car Market
The luxury sports-car company aims to start selling a fully electric vehicle in 2025. Can it do that and still be Ferrari?
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A Ferrari SF90 Stradale, one of the company’s first plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, was introduced in 2019.PHOTO: VALERY HACHE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Eric Sylvers
July 31, 2022 11:00 am ET
31

Ferrari NV has been making luxury sports cars in the same factory in northern Italy for 75 years. The company’s hometown, Maranello, holds almost mythical status for motorheads, and is a pilgrimage destination for Ferrari owners and aspirational owners who arrive by the thousands every year.

Now this paragon of tradition, style, quality and luxury is facing perhaps its biggest challenge ever: the shift to fully electric models. This evolution is a test for all of the car industry, but it has existential contours for Ferrari, which is steeped in tradition and made a name for itself with powerful, and loud, internal-combustion engines.

To navigate this and a series of other challenges, Ferrari has turned to Benedetto Vigna, a car-industry outsider who took over as chief executive in September following more than a quarter-century at semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics NV. Microchips are playing an increasingly important role in all aspects of the modern car from brakes to autonomous-driving features.

Mr. Vigna spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the car maker’s first fully electric vehicle, due in 2025; the launch of the Purosangue, its largest Ferrari yet; and the importance of the Formula One team to the rest of the business. Edited excerpts follow.

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WSJ: Despite the importance of microchips in the modern car, many people were surprised when you were named CEO of Ferrari. What does a semiconductor expert bring?

MR. VIGNA: I brought a link to another world, a world that is increasingly important for the automotive industry. One of my former competitors in the semiconductor industry came here and showed me everything they are working on. He said, “I’m showing you because I know you can understand. That’s not common in the auto industry.” The chips are part of a tectonic shift going on in the automotive industry.

Tracking trends
WSJ: What role will chips play in that shift at Ferrari?

MR. VIGNA: The trend for the car of the future is to be more autonomous, shared, connected and electric. Chips will play a role in all of that. There are some trends that make sense for us and others that don’t. Clearly we will have L2 [a classification that includes limited autonomous-driving features], but there won’t be a Ferrari that drives itself. We will have improved connectivity to offer a better experience, and clearly there will be electric Ferraris.

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Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, a veteran of the semiconductor industry, promises that an all-electric Ferrari won’t be silent.PHOTO: FLAVIO LO SCALZO/REUTERS
WSJ: What surprised you when you started at Ferrari?

MR. VIGNA: On the positive side, the passion and will to progress here are very strong. Testament to this are the many great ideas we constantly receive from workers. One proposal recently put forward was for a more efficient and sustainable use of energy and aluminum, all the more important in this period of inflation. On average, the energy used to produce a car was reduced by around 3% over the last year, and we aim to reach 5% by year-end.

What surprised me negatively, and what I have started to correct, is that even though this company isn’t big—we’re talking about 5,000 people—there were too many organizational levels. There were some meetings I was attending with suppliers that showed up with only two people and we were six or seven. And it was clear that the lowest-ranking person was running the show. So in some cases, like in R&D, there were seven people working on a project and now there are five.

WSJ: But you didn’t downsize. What do you hope your employees are doing with this extra time?

MR. VIGNA: I want them to be working on transformation. The leadership of a company must perform, but also transform. Perform is just execution, transform is more strategic. And to transform you need time to think.

WSJ: How does transformation happen?

MR. VIGNA: One way is to have people get input from outside the company, for example by attending training courses. I’m always bothering everyone about that.

WSJ: It’s a tough time for the car industry and the economy more generally. How is that affecting Ferrari?

MR. VIGNA: From a financial point of view, we don’t see any impact. In the future, we expect we will feel it. We will react accordingly if needed.

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WSJ: Why has Ferrari been able to avoid the negative macroeconomic impact so far?

MR. VIGNA: We have seen some increases in energy and the costs of certain raw materials, mainly aluminum and precious metals. In light of this, we immediately took two actions to preserve our profitability. In fall of last year, we applied a price increase across our current product range. And we have set the price of our new models to adequately reflect our estimates of cost inflation.

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The SF90 Stradale hybrid with charging cable. Ferrari’s first all-electric car is planned to arrive in 2025.PHOTO: ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS
WSJ: Ferrari’s first all-electric car will arrive in 2025. What has the company learned from making and selling your four plug-in hybrids?

MR. VIGNA: One point, the electric engine can enhance the performance of the thermal engine. No. 2, we’ve seen what the key dimensions are that you must pay attention to when you want to make an electric Ferrari that is a true Ferrari.

FERRARI FACTS
Founded: 1947

Headquarters: Maranello, Italy

Pct. of Ferraris made in Maranello: 100

Plug-in hybrid models sold: 4

Planned launch of first all-electric Ferrari: 2025

Pct. of vehicles sold that will be all-electric in 2030 (forecast): 40

2021 revenue: €4.27 billion (up 13% from 2019)

2021 vehicles delivered: 11,155 (up 10% from 2019)



Source: the company

Some customers with multiple Ferraris are saying they only want to drive their hybrid car because of the combination of the two engines. Customers understand that electric is a technology we are using to enhance performance and it isn’t being forced on us.

WSJ: At your recent capital-markets day with analysts in June, you said an electric Ferrari is still going to be a Ferrari. What does that mean?

MR. VIGNA: We will look at three dimensions: design, performance and emotion. We will always have a unique design. On the performance side, we’re looking at aerodynamics and the efficiency of the engine. On the emotional side, we are looking at the sound and the way you feel the acceleration.


Electric sound
WSJ: Some Ferrari enthusiasts are worried about the sound, or should I say silence, of the electric engine. The roar of a Ferrari engine is legendary for some people.

MR. VIGNA: Each motor has its own sound. So we will have an electric engine with its own sound. People believe that the electric engine is silent, but it isn’t. There are ways that we can extract a unique sound from the electric engine without using electronics. We are working on that and we are patenting it.

WSJ: In September, you will present the Purosangue. Your predecessor refused to call it an SUV and you won’t either, even though that’s the segment it will be competing in. Why is that?

MR. VIGNA: In the last seven or eight years I’ve been driving high-end SUVs. The way you sit in an SUV is completely different compared with a sports car. When you sit in a Purosangue, you feel like you’re in a sports car.

WSJ: Who do you think will be the typical customer for this larger Ferrari?

MR. VIGNA: It’s early days yet, but we are seeing immense interest from clients who want more room in a car and more space for passengers, but who don’t want to renounce the feeling and the performance of a sports car. We expect it will attract both Ferrari owners and new customers.

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Charles Leclerc of Ferrari’s Formula One team at the British Grand Prix in July. ‘Racing is part of the DNA of this company,’ says Mr. Vigna, the CEO.PHOTO: HOCH ZWEI/DPA/ZUMA PRESS
WSJ: Former CEO Sergio Marchionne used to say how important it is for the company to win on the Formula One track. Yet the racing team had a long run of bad years, and in that period sales and profit didn’t suffer. How convinced are you of the importance of the F1 team to Ferrari’s image and marketing?

MR. VIGNA: Racing is part of the DNA of this company. It has been and it will always be. It is the glue that keeps everybody here together and promotes the sense of belonging and the passion. It reminds the people who work here of the importance of timing, of paying attention to detail and that everything must work together perfectly.

As far as the correlation or causation between the success in Formula One and sales, we have never seen a direct relationship. That said, there is a link, as F1 is a fundamental driver of the popularity of the brand and business. And if we win a race on Sunday, it’s a morale boost for all of us when we go back to work Monday morning.

Mr. Sylvers is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Milan. Email him at [email protected].



Corrections & Amplifications
Ferrari Chief Executive Benedetto Vigna said there had been a lot of attention to training employees at the company before he arrived last year. An earlier version of this article incorrectly quoted him as saying there hadn’t been enough attention to training. The article also incorrectly attributed a reduction in the amount of energy used at Ferrari to an employee’s proposal. (Corrected on July 31.)

 

*sigh*

 

hahahaha

The end is here!!!
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Is he being honest about that?

 

Can't be...he is a 'semiconductor' expert, not high rpm electric motors...they all sound like dentist drills, they can be made quiet/relatively noiseless, but what "unique sound without using electronics" could they possibly come up with....why wouldn't Formula E already be doing that?



oh, maybe have the passengers do the sound effects?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/In4pb6s7jDs

 

Completely
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I’ll keep my 812 GTS and Speciale...zero interest in an EV Ferrari...ever. I’ll happily drive a luxurious and silent EV (like a Rolls) as long as it has range and extensive charging options.

 

"This junk food is disgusting, but we will work on it to make you believe this is a very good meal.
Of course you will pay even more money than before to buy this, we are very confident about this .."
Vigna and all the board are delusionals if they really believe they will succeed in..
Guys, time to keep your V12 !

 

Recent quote by VW/Audi/Lamborghini regarding BEV sounds....

https://www.carscoops.com/2022/08/lamborghini-assures-their-cars-will-remain-emotional-even-in-the-electric-age/

As for how the characteristic sounds of the automaker’s 10- and 12-cylinder engines will be made up for in the electric age, Borkert suggested that “the cars will maybe sound like a spaceship, like a ‘Star Wars’ machine. I’m sure those cars will touch people, just in a different way than the cars touch you today.”

I guess they gave up on the "wind" idea...

https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/feel-the-noise-giving-ev-supercars-a-soundtrack

“It’s the emotion,” Lamborghini’s chief technical officer, Maurizio Reggiani, told Wheels at the international launch of the Nurburgring-annihilating SVJ. “And that emotion is related to the sound. For me, an electric car must be like an instrument that must be able to play music, and that music must be real.

“And that means to use aerodynamics to generate the sound, which must be related to the car’s functionality. Sound that must be a Lamborghini sound, and that is occurring naturally, not being faked.”

But recognising that Lamborghini will need a way to inject soul into their electric future is the easy part. The much more difficult step is actually inventing a way to create this mysterious wind-generated soundtrack.

For that, Lamborghini has secretly commissioned two universities – one in the USA and one in Europe – to create and patent the technology needed to create a sound that can stir the emotions using nothing but rushing air. It’s all very hush-hush for now, but the Italian brand says it’s on the cusp of announcing a “robust” patent that will change the way we view (and hear) electric cars.

“Using the air, you can make whatever sound you want. But it must be something that will define Lamborghinis of the future,” Reggiani says.

“We haven’t yet signed the NDA, but we have something really robust in terms of patent. One of the universities is in Europe, the other is in in the USA. They’re working on it.”

But it’s not just the sound, or lack of it, that’s currently holding Lamborghini back. There’s also the pesky problem of sustained performance – something conventional battery storage solutions are notoriously terrible at providing. And for this, Lamborghini has turned to a third university.

(...)

 

Sound is a difficult thing, we all love the sound of an accelerating V12 and V8 and the shifting up and down through the gears, but the drone at constant speed at 3,500 rpm can be equally annoying.

The whine of an electric motor is not very nice and adding 'space' sounds will certainly not be to everybody's taste. But in an EV you should have the option to choose the sound you want to hear or complete silence.

 

Ferrari is nearing the end and they are unaware of it...
No engine sound, no customers !
Once the effect of novelty passed, which always enjoy some customers, no one will put 500 k in a disposable battery-powered car.
The engine gives a soul and a nobility to a car, the batteries have neither soul nor nobility and evoke household appliances.

 

That's not why people buy supercars.

 

Well stated!

!!nobility!!

There is no nobility in an appliance!

There is no future for any exotic BEV manufacturer, only limited runs, 100-200 cars every few years, look at Rimac, there is no "market" for exotic BEVs, Rimac will make 50 BEV exotics per year for 3 years...Pininfarina Battista, 10 weeks to make a single car, 50 per year for 3 years (it is Rimac powered), Lotus Evija, 130 total production run, just pointless, small numbers, sky-high prices, no market...at the lower end of pricing, we will see how Porsche does with the BEV 718 due out in 2025...will it just be a 2-seat Taycan?

 

meaning what? why do people buy supercars?

 

https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/corporate/articles/second-quarter-2022-financial-results

Maybe Ferrari have a different understanding of what the end is than you?

 

Ferrari is a bit like Lehman Brothers before the subprime crisis...
I think so and I'm not the only one, in 15 years they will make more cars for me and will have become a service company.
There are no long-term customers for expensive disposable cars.
The history on which it capitalizes and which has been their best asset, will become their biggest problem.
To forget all his years of screaming NA is impossible. You can't sell
massively
a soulless car at this price !
Customers who buy a Ferrari want to belong to the history of the brand and to be valued and recognized.
Without the case of full electric cars, you have neither...

 

Which is absolutely unacceptable is that they had others options to avoid this.
And they chose the wrong way.
Efuel is the only way to keep combustion engines.
No matter the cost because someone able to spend 3 millions euros on a car doesn’t care about paying 4 or 5 euros/liter.