Ferrari unveils its first fully electric car - but the 'Ferrari Luce' fails to impress investors, as the stock declines in early trade.
What Benedetto Vigna said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said the launch of the Ferrari Elettrica, the company's first fully electric car, marks a new chapter after five years of development. He emphasized the importance of respect in new technology, ensuring the design properly represents the electric engine, which allows for a different hood and new materials like aluminum and glass that can be used in future thermal cars. Vigna confirmed the Elettrica delivers the same emotional sensation as traditional Ferraris, with each engine having its own sound. He highlighted the value of open innovation, citing the collaboration with Jony Ive and LoveFrom, and compared it to the founder's work with Touring. On profitability, Vigna said the company invests the right amount of money, is disciplined with capex, and that the EV initiative is in line with the profitability of other projects. He did not provide specific financial figures.
Key takeaways
Vigna said the Elettrica launch opens a new chapter in Ferrari's history, a day he had been looking for since five years.
Vigna confirmed the Elettrica provides the same emotional sensation as traditional Ferraris, with each engine having its own sound.
Vigna said the EV's small engine allows design freedom, like a different hood, and materials that can be used in future thermal cars.
Vigna said the collaboration with Jony Ive and LoveFrom reflects Ferrari's belief in open innovation, similar to the founder's work with Touring.
Vigna said Ferrari invests the right amount of money and is disciplined with capex, with the EV initiative in line with existing profitability.
Numbers and commitments
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What it refers to
Type
At
5 years
Time Vigna had been looking for the Elettrica launch day
All right, let's have a look at Ferrari shares where they're currently trading. They are down 6%. And here's the thing. Oh, actually, I've got to do a read. Ferrari has unveiled its first fully electric car co-designed by the former Apple chief designer Jony Ive. The Ferrari Elettrica is a five-seater powered by an electric engine on each wheel and is able to reach 100 km per hour in just 2.5 seconds.
Charlotte, here's the thing. Ever since I got Ferrari wrong at its IPO about a decade or so ago and I got it completely wrong. I thought it could trade like the rest of the auto sector and it doesn't. It trades like a luxury stock.
Exactly. When you're going, and that is the key, is if you're going to spend more than half a million in a car, you probably want people to know that you have a Ferrari and you know it just doesn't have the typical look of a Ferrari. And it's interesting that all the videos that we've just seen now of the unveiling they've put it blue rather than red. So, on purpose, they're trying to do something different. And we have to wait and see whether some of their classic customers like something different, but they do say that they want to win new customers with this car as well. That's why there's a whole lot of new offering. It's the very first time that you have a five-seater for a Ferrari. They have a very big boot, a big trunk there. So, they said they want to attract more people, maybe also younger customers. Again, with that firepower in terms of money, that's a question about whether they can attract lots more. And they want to bring it to the Chinese market as well. They say that they have tough EV competition in the Chinese market. They've been losing sales in that country. A lot of analysts say that actually this EV car could be a really good fit for the Chinese market.
But if you're buying a first Ferrari, you would probably buy a red Ferrari or something of that kind or black Ferrari, gray Ferrari. So this is the second car, isn't it? This is the EV car, the one that you get around with because it's more planet conscious, more environmentally friendly, hence the different color. So the marketing is positioning it into a separate category. That seems to be part of the strategy there as well. And that's five years in the making. They had a lot of time to think about this offering and showing that EVs can have the performance of a sports car as well. So, if anyone can do it, Ferrari are the ones. And from a technical point of view, you were saying, from 0 to 100 km in 2.5 seconds. It is very high performance in terms of car, 310 km/hour. It has a range of 530 km. So, the equivalent to the usual Tesla. So, they're ticking a lot of boxes as well. But here again, it looks like investors this morning are not super convinced. I thought this all secret launch over the weekend. It was like state security kind of level around this embargo launch over the weekend. But again, I had a chance to catch up with Benedetto Vigna. It was a big moment for him as well because the announcement of this new fully electric Ferrari was under his very first capital markets day in 2022. So, a big moment there. When I had a chance to catch up with the CEO, I asked him about how important this moment was for Ferrari, for him as a CEO and for the EV industry at large.
I think this is a very important day. I was looking for this day since 5 years. It's a day when we open a new chapter in our history book. It's a day when we can show the entire world all what we did with all the people with passion and daring to do something new and also changing the way we do. So very, very important day.
So it's interesting with this one because you have to both attract your classic customers but you also say you want to attract new customers and that already starts with a lot of firsts in this one. The bigger trunk, the five seats and it looks quite different to your usual car. So, can you please both your Ferrari lover and your new client?
13 more exchanges in this transcript
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Vigna, B. (2026, May 26). Ferrari shares plunge after launch of first EV [Interview transcript]. CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/940866/
MLA
Benedetto Vigna. "Ferrari shares plunge after launch of first EV." CNBC International Live, 26 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/940866/.
BibTeX
@misc{vigna2026_940866,
author = {Benedetto Vigna},
title = {Ferrari shares plunge after launch of first EV},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/940866/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
