EV Debut Tanks Stock — Billions Vanish!

Three luxury cars in front of mountain landscape — MASSIVE EV FLOP

Ferrari just wiped out roughly three billion euros in market value in a single day by showing the world a car that Reddit users compared to a Waymo robotaxi.

Story Snapshot

Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, the Luce, debuted at approximately $640,000 and was met with immediate fan outrage and mixed-to-negative critical reviews.
Ferrari’s stock dropped more than 6% in Milan trading the day of the reveal, erasing billions in market capitalization almost overnight.
Critics called the four-door, five-seat design a bloated departure from Ferrari’s identity, with some comparing it to a Nissan Leaf or a Honda.
Ferrari deliberately designed the Luce as a new category within the brand, but that strategic framing has so far done little to quiet the fury from the faithful.

A $640,000 Car That Broke the Internet and the Stock Price

Ferrari’s (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) stock fell 6.27% in Milan trading on the day of the Luce reveal, dropping to €290.55 per share and wiping out roughly three billion euros in market capitalization in a matter of hours. ^[6] Premarket trading in the United States saw declines as steep as 8% before a partial recovery. That is a brutal one-day verdict from investors who have historically treated Ferrari stock like a luxury asset rather than a volatile tech play. The market was not impressed.

The backlash was not limited to trading floors. Social media lit up with comparisons that no Ferrari marketing team ever wants to see in print. Reddit commenters described the Luce as “giving Waymo” vibes, and others said the design was “somehow worse than I could ever have imagined.” ^[5] One widely shared take on social media called it a “bloated minivan” priced at the level of a small yacht. For a brand whose entire identity rests on visceral, driver-focused, fire-breathing machines, those words sting in a way that a spec sheet cannot fix.

Ferrari shares plunged by more than 8% as investors and critics reacted coolly to the Italian luxury sports carmaker's new Luce electric car, questioning whether it remained true to the brand's identity https://t.co/NC2DVg80Di pic.twitter.com/fk1TUx5czW

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2026

What Ferrari Actually Built and Why It Enraged the Faithful

The Luce arrives as a four-door, five-seat fully electric vehicle with approximately 1,050 horsepower and a 12.5-inch center touchscreen display. ^[7] The interior was designed in collaboration with legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, with Ferrari describing the cabin as “conceived as a single, clean volume, with forms simplified and rationalised in the service of driving.” ^[2] That language reads like a press release written to soothe Silicon Valley investors, not the kind of man who drives a manual V12 on a Sunday morning because it makes him feel alive.

The design itself represents a fundamental shift in body style, use case, and intended buyer. Traditional Ferrari customers buy a two-seat, mid-engine sports car that sounds like an opera and handles like a scalpel. The Luce is none of those things. ^[4]

Some critics have pointed out that Ferrari could have neutralized a significant portion of the controversy by releasing the Luce under a separate sub-brand, similar to the way Ferrari once used the Dino name to distance entry-level models from the main marque. That idea has genuine merit, and the fact that Ferrari chose not to take that path suggests either supreme confidence or a significant miscalculation.

The Pattern Ferrari Should Have Studied More Carefully

Heritage performance brands electrifying their lineup is not new territory, and the backlash pattern is remarkably consistent. The criticism almost never centers on performance numbers. It concentrates on identity, sound, and the sense that something irreplaceable has been handed over to engineers who prioritize range estimates over soul.

Ferrari’s own history includes fierce early resistance to turbocharged engines and front-engine layouts, both of which eventually became accepted. Launch fury does not automatically translate into long-term brand damage.

Ferrari shares sank 6% after the company unveiled the Luce, its first fully electric vehicle. Priced around €550,000 ($640,000), the five-seater—co-designed with ex-Apple chief Jony Ive—drew online backlash for its unconventional design. Wall Street advises to "buy the dip,"…

— Leinona Aoki (@LeinonaA69) May 27, 2026

That said, the Luce situation carries a specific risk that past controversies did not. Ferrari is not changing an engine configuration on a car that still looks and feels like a Ferrari. It is introducing a vehicle that a significant portion of its core audience does not recognize as a Ferrari at all. ^[1] The stock reaction, the forum eruptions, and the reaction-video pile-on all point to a reputational stress test that Ferrari has not faced at this scale before.

Whether the brand emerges stronger depends entirely on whether the Luce finds a new class of wealthy buyers willing to pay $640,000 for something that existing Ferrari loyalists refuse to consider. That is a very expensive bet on a customer who does not yet exist in Ferrari’s order books, and the next twelve months will determine whether Maranello’s gamble was madness or masterstroke. ^[3]