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Abigail Bassett, writing for The Verge on the universally panned, $640,000, Jony Ive–designed Ferrari Luce, quoting design-school chair Raphael Zammit:

“It’s not a sports car, it’s not a city electric, and it’s not really luxury,” Zammit said. “It seems like they might have gotten a little bit snowed or oversold by LoveFrom… The strategy is very muddy, because of what they’re doing versus what they’re saying on different parts of the vehicle.”

The car looks strategy-less only if you assume it was built to be desired. It wasn’t.

Ferrari rations the cars people actually crave — the F80, the limited runs — to loyal customers who already own several. A half-million-dollar five-seater that sells out through 2027 is not a flop. It is an entry fee. You don’t buy the Luce because you love it. You buy it to move up the list for the car you do.

There’s a second motive hiding under the bad proportions: an electric Ferrari lowers the fleet’s average emissions, which buys regulatory room to keep building screaming combustion V12s a while longer. The quiet car exists so the loud ones survive.

Which is why handing the first EV to LoveFrom and getting back something the internet compared to a Magic Mouse is the tell, not the mistake. When you delete the engine — the most emotional object in the whole brand — and replace it with minimalism, you have already conceded this product was never going to run on desire.

Montezemolo’s “take the Prancing Horse off it” is the honest review. Ferrari’s “sold out through 2027” is the honest rebuttal. Both are correct, and that is the whole trick.