So in a world of global uncertainty and economic, geopolitical tensions, how are luxury brands navigating all this landscape? I have with me a very learned and experienced man, Mr. Benedetto Vigna. Vigna, I think I'm pronouncing it right. He's the CEO of Ferrari. At least something makes us feel very happy, but the world around us right now is very chaotic. We see wars, we see markets crashing, we see oil prices going up. Before I begin and talk to you about business, let's talk about your journey to Varanasi. You spoke very beautifully when you said you learned this, it means that how can it not happen, it has to happen. Please tell us about your journey in Varanasi. What did you learn from there? And you've been to India 50 times, what are your views about India?
I think that you said well, India is a special place for me because it's now more than 25 years I'm coming here. I have a lot of friends. I have several colleagues, I have Indian friends a little bit everywhere in the world. What I like when I come here is that you have a peaceful approach, kindness, a spiritual approach. And I have to say that the trip yesterday in Varanasi, I gave a speech in the IIT over there. I was invited by the team, by the students, to give a speech. A lot of people. It's always surprising me when I come here, the attachment, the passion for our brand, but also the passion for learning. That is very unique. And yesterday when I was in Varanasi and I saw many times this panel, I love Kashi. I love Kashi. And then I said, what does he mean Kashi? Kashi is the original name of Varanasi. It means as you know, city of life, the city of light. And it was particular because this year we are launching, Luce, it means light. It means light. Particular because everything was, it was a sign. It was a sign. And this is, you know, it's true when you come to India you have a lot of pieces that apparently are uncorrelated and then they fit all together and you see a real reality.
With eyes different from when you were coming to India. It was a divine signal to you, huh?
I never thought in this way. I will send an email to the colleague because it's pretty unique. But in a world that is torn apart, at least there is some spirituality and kindness and at least peace out here. That's what you feel. I think there is. I think there is. I have to say that all the times I came to India, I saw it. It is also true that if I see India in the last 20 years, 25 years, a big change has been happening. And this is also the reason why we believe that India is an important market for Ferrari. We see this change coming and we have already a lot of clients from different industries, from different business sectors. They are very passionate and I think we are a good fit between Ferrari and India because think about this, in Ferrari, traditional innovation go end to end. And in a luxury brand usually you need to put together traditional innovation. And the same here in India. It's pretty common to see these places where the past and the future, the traditional innovation, they live together. And handcrafting is very dear to us as well, you know, these kind of things. So absolutely.
But tell me, in the beginning, just tell me, I wanted to understand that how do you look at the luxury market when you see a situation like this globally? Like we are in the middle of a war, as I said, prices, all prices have been going up, markets are crashing, there is uncertainty. How do you see the demand for luxury products going?
Today we don't see any change in our demand also because we make 14,000 cars. 14,000 cars. So clearly if we were making many more cars, this would have been a bigger impact. Today we don't see any impact. Because also we make, because our client base is pretty much differentiated in the world and also because we make only 14,000 cars. This does not mean that we don't have to pay attention. Because what I always keep repeating myself and all the team is that we need to have the four wheels on the ground because things can change. So we need to be in this period.
How do you cope? How do you cope with uncertainty?
First of all, we cannot pretend to manage it. You don't manage things that are outside you. You cope with them. You take as a fixed condition and you see how to, let's say, to cope. Two, we need to be united and cohesive. And three, we need to be with the feet on the ground. That's the reason why I was telling you coming to India. That's at least the effect it has on me. It always reminds the importance of humility. And the trip like yesterday I did to Kashi, it was the first time for me to go there. And to spend time going on the river. The Ganga's banks. It was a kind of spiritual journey. And it keeps remembering that in this period of uncertainty, more than ever, humility means a lot. And also working together with other people. In uniting, being cohesive, collaborating, learning, these are fundamental things and that's what I believe luxury companies as all other companies have to do.
So have faith and you know, this too shall pass. It's something like that.
I think this is not the first, will not be the last. I think we had many other situations like this in the world. It's, if you want, it's maybe the nature of human beings. I don't know. But at the end of the story, if you think about this, after we had a couple, we had the beginning of the chip crisis, semiconductor chip crisis, and then we have the Ukraine war and then we have the other Middle East war. So the supply chain stress. So there are five, six years now there are a lot of disruptions. We have been able to cope with that. As I said, in a united, working united, cohesive, and always staying close to the reality. I remember when we were risking to shut down or to line down the production line. But cooperating with the supplier, cooperating among ourselves, we have been able to keep the production running despite some potential risk.
So we've become more resilient. Though obviously the impact, the sentimental impact on consumers will always be there, I guess.
I think yes, I think it's a good point. Thanks to this stress test of the last year, we became more resilient for sure. There is something that we will learn also in this situation that we are living in these days. That's clear.
You just unveiled the Testarossa, 499 Testarossa in India. It's a pure delight to look at the car. But we are moving into an era where we talk about AI, we talk about autonomous, and this whole thing about having the sheer pleasure of driving a car yourself is gradually going away. That whole emotional value, emotion is on one side and then technology, autonomy on the other side. Do you think this thing is going to go down? This passionate love for driving such beautiful cars, as we move into an era where the cars are very quiet, they're electric, they're autonomous. What is the future of mobility and especially for a company like Ferrari, it is all about the thrill of driving cars and somehow we are moving in a direction where the thrill is just going away, it's just relaxing in your car as you would relax in your living room and reading a newspaper or talking, playing a game.
I think that's a good point. There are a couple of points I would like to highlight. One, we believe that in our case we need to deliver, to offer our client any kind of car, call it ICE, combustion, call it hybrid, call it electric, the Ferrari Luce. And I think that if you use a technology properly, you can deliver unique emotion whatever is the technology. If you use a technology starting from the emotion that you want to deliver, we are able to do something unique. So I have, and our responsibility in front of the client is to be able to manage these technologies in a way that whatever is the core of the powertrain, people can have fun. This is one point. The other point is about the relation of human beings with all these technologies. For user interface, I believe that we pretend to believe that we are faster than our predecessors. But this gentleman here is always the same. I think that the way we interact with the object and the people is like in the past. Today we are pretending to be multitaskers. We are pretending to be faster. But in reality we are not. We are not so much different from the past. So when we do something we have to do with a full concentration. When you drive, you have to be fully concentrated on the driving. So having said that, we will make cars that will deliver the driving emotion to the driver, not to the chips. A running algorithm of AI. So Ferrari may use some driving assisted driving function, but that's a different story. You know, also the new generation, we see also new generation that are having fun of driving the car.
But you know this new generation is actually growing up with smartphones and screens all around and do you think that that is the answer to satisfy their needs in the sense that put more screens and give less control to them or will they be okay with this kind of a product as you say, as we look at it, where the control needs to be in your hand. The pleasure is all yours, is something like that.
I believe we will have two kind of car. There will be the car of every day. The car that are meant for mobility. For utility. And then there are the car instead that are more meant to address the unique driving emotion of the people. I think if you see for example, make one simple example. If you go to see the market in Europe, the total number of cars that has been decreased. But the premium car, I see the premium car because there are more statistical data, has been always there. So, it's true that the number of cars is reducing in some consolidated market, but it's true that the high end is always there. Because at the end of the story, you want to have fun when you drive a car and in the luxury is even more. Because you buy a Ferrari not because you need it from a functional point of view. You need it from an emotional point of view.
Hopefully that emotion should stay in us because you need to reward yourself. You need to feel that passion and thrill because if that goes down then we'll become very boring.
No I mean look we already outsourced the memory function. Because now we don't remember the phone number anymore. We have to outsource maybe the rational reasoning in the right way. But I don't think the emotion is something that can be outsourced because think about this we are having this interaction. We could have been having this interview through a question. But this would have been a colder interview. It would not have been interactive because I see your eyes. I see the way you respond to my answer and it's a closed loop. No, I love it. That emotion cannot be outsourced. No, I don't think so. I don't think that this part will be outsourced.
You know the brute force of any sports car and the noise, the grunt that it gives you is a different emotion altogether. And now gradually when we talk about electrics and you getting the Ferrari Luce in the market, do you think that we'll miss that kind of pleasure as well? Or with electrics, how do you think things will evolve for a company that prides itself in the kind of engines that it makes and the noise, the grunt of those engines? And then we are moving into an era which is of silence and.
I think first of all electric motors are not silent. People believe electric motors are silent but in reality it is not silent. It has its own sound. Now you have to work to extract and to listen to it properly. So there are unfortunately today some biases, some prejudice against electric cars. One is the sound. And in reality there is a sound. Two is the weight of the car that it does not allow you to drive easily. But our car is very light. Then there is one other point, the engaging dimension. How you engage. Well our car has the paddle shift. The Ferrari Luce has the paddle shift. If you go in other electric cars they do not have it. I think the point is that whatever is the technology, you need to spend time, to invest time, to invest money to humanize it. The humanization of technology does not come for free. The problem is that so far an electric car has been only driven by environmental reason and it is nothing more than replacing one powertrain with another. This is not the case of Ferrari. Ferrari is also electric, but there are many other things.
