Posted on 01/17/2018 12:01:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Ferrari will make a battery-electric supercar to snatch some market share and attention away from Tesla, the dominant player in the luxury electric vehicle industry, CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The Italian race car brands move towards electrification signals a shift not just for the company, but for Marchionne, who also heads Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Marchionne also confirmed plans to bring a Ferrari SUV to market by late 2019 or 2020, Bloomberg reported. Reports of a Ferrari SUV first arose in August.
There are scant details on this impending electric Ferrari. The company will presumably want to produce an electric supercar before Tesla brings its new and improved Roadster to market in 2020.
More information on this electric Ferrari will likely come out when Marchionne unveils the companys five-year plan, his last as CEO. Marchionne, one of the auto industrys longest-serving CEOs, is set to retire in 2021. Hes held the top role since 2004.
The five-year plan is expected to set a higher annual deliveries target for Ferrari than its current self-imposed limit of 10,000 cars. Ferraris future will include hybrid cars, Marchionne told Bloomberg, so going from there to an electric is easy.
Marchionnes commentsparticularly those in an in-depth interview with Bloomberg ahead of the Detroit Auto Showare in contrast with how FCA has operated in the past. The company has lagged behind other automakers scrambling to introduce electric vehicles and deploy commercial fleets of autonomous vehicles. FCA has focused more on its existing brands and partnerships, like its one with self-driving vehicle startup Waymo.
But Marchionne now believes that automakers have about 10 years to reinvent themselves to meet the changing consumer mindsets on how vehicles are purchased, driven, and powered. His impending five-year plan should address how FCA hopes to meet these new demands.
The first Tesla prototype was a converted Lotus Elise.
Sure. That’s pure economics where supply is currently fairly equal to demand. That will most certainly change — in an unfavorable way.
Given market expansion and the corresponding rewards for innovation that go with it, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.
Seems to me that EV tech is particularly well suited for luxury sports cars like Ferrari. These cars don’t need a super long driving range, The cost of replacing the expensive battery isn’t going to be a big deal for their typical owners. And they will really benefit from the great performance of an electric drivetrain — the big instant torque. Maybe EV will get its foothold in the luxury sports market and then trickle down to the broader market.
If I had a specialized application where a particular tool proved superior for the task, of course I would choose it. That doesn’t mean I’d use that particular tool for general use, when it’s demonstrably inferior to another tool for general use.
My general application is driving less than 300 mile round-trip per day. With an EV, I never have to “fill up” as an explicit time-consuming task (even if it’s 3 minutes, which it’s not because I’d have to drive to/from the station). I’d never get in the car, in a hurry to get somewhere, and go “oh crap, I have to get gas” and be late for an appointment. I’d never have to spend an hour + $30 on oil changes every 10 full recharges. When my primary fuel/energy source shuts down (gas stations closed 3x in last 10 years around here), I’d have the option of recharging with gasoline, propane, and solar.
Racing far enough to require a refill/recharge just doesn’t figure into my life. Ever.
Now they just need a self-driving version!
Haha, Enzo, non credo, sarebbe così amichevole a riguardo :-)
The electric Harley is here but not marketed yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuhPZTrSmBw
Yeah, probably not. Caio!
LOL you’re going to be disappointed.
after watching the electric car crash on Grand Tour, I’m not so sure I’d want one. True, that was a Croatian car, but the problem discussed on the show was that after the crash the batteries burst into fire one after another, and are hard for firemen to put out the fire...
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