Insult or not, people will still buy! Ferrari NV (RACE.US) CEO responds to criticism of first electric car: orders continue to increase, customers are voting with their wallets.

Ferrari NV (RACE.US) CEO Benedetto Vigna responded positively for the first time to the media storm that Luce has faced in the past three days at a media roundtable event held in Modena, Italy. He confirmed that the company has started receiving formal orders from new and returning customers for the first all-electric model, Luce, and explicitly stated "Ferrari NV Luce is completely different from any other electric cars you have seen before - you must see it with your own eyes and drive it yourself to understand it is not a copycat." Luce, released on May 25, is Ferrari NV's first all-electric mass-produced model, positioned as a four-door five-seater Deluxe Corporation electric supercar, with a starting price of 550,000 euros in the Italian market, and is expected to begin deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2026. Following the release, the market reacted strongly - Ferrari NV's stock price in Milan dropped nearly 8% intraday on May 26, closing down over 6%, with a market value evaporating by about $5 billion in a single day. However, at this Modena event, Vigna's core signal was released: orders have come in, customers have voted with their wallets. CEO's three-fold response: on controversy, pricing, and customers "Excessive exposure": a self-reflection on the rhythm of information release Vigna made a rare self-criticism in Modena. According to Reuters, he pointed out that Ferrari NV may have given too much media attention to this electric model, leading some to mistakenly believe that the Deluxe Corporation sports car group would completely shift to electric vehicles and replace traditional internal combustion engine models. But Vigna emphasized: "We will continue to produce various types of powertrains. The ultimate answer depends on customers." This statement clarified a key strategic positioning issue. While some outside observers have misinterpreted Luce as a "Ferrari NV's declaration of a complete shift to electrification," in reality, Ferrari NV maintains a clear three-track parallel route: pure electric, hybrid, and fuel supply simultaneously. Vigna is saying: launching an electric car does not mean abandoning the 12-cylinder - the choice is in the hands of the customers, not policymakers. "Innovation comes at a cost": the theoretical bottom line of the 550,000 euro pricing Regarding the 550,000 euro starting price of Luce, which has been questioned since its launch and is higher than Ferrari NV's average selling price of about 440,000 euros in 2025, Vigna made an uncompromising defense: "Innovation comes at a cost. If you don't pay for innovation, you let down the people involved in innovation, the supply chain that made it possible, and the technology itself." Vigna further pointed out: "You must see Luce with your own eyes to understand that it has nothing to do with Chinese electric cars or other brands." Luce is equipped with core technologies claimed by Ferrari NV to have aggregated more than 60 new patents, including a four-motor drive system, active suspension system, four-wheel steering, a 122 kWh battery pack with an 800-volt electrical architecture, and an exclusive electric sound system developed over five years and tested on tracks for 40,000 kilometers. In Ferrari NV's speech system centered on "scarcity" as the core business model, high prices have never needed an apology - it is a function of brand positioning, not a variable. Orders: the quietest but most powerful rebuttal Facing the inundation of memes and design criticisms on social media, Vigna threw out a sentence to end the controversy: "Look at the people writing to us, look at the people placing orders. Some are old customers, some are new customers." This was not a temporary public relations move. In February 2026, Vigna revealed in San Francisco that the initial feedback from customers for Luce was "very positive." Ferrari NV's plan at the time was to start collecting purchase intentions in March, officially open order collection after the Rome conference in May - and this rhythm has been strictly adhered to. AutoNews confirmed this differentiation phenomenon in a report on May 28, emphasizing that analysts point out that customer feedback is not as negative as public reaction - the intense criticisms and the group of buyers who are actually capable of writing a check for $640,000 on social media are not completely overlapping. In Ferrari NV's business logic, the damage of ten thousand negative comments on social media is far less than the fatal impact of a target customer retracting their purchase intention - and the message Vigna wants to convey at this moment is precisely: the latter has not occurred.