At an Investor Day this month, executives
promised a new era, with the first all-electric Ferrari in 2025.
But for now, combustion engines remain the
noisy heart of what he does. Unlike some rivals, Ferrari has not provided a
roadmap for going all-electric. The Volkswagen Bentley brand and Volvo are both
aiming for 2030.
According to a source familiar with
Ferrari’s business plans, a new production line focused on electric vehicles
(EVs) is expected to help boost annual production at its factory in Maranello,
Italy, by more than 35% to more than 15 000 cars by 2025 versus 11,155 in 2021
– or 65 cars per day versus 46 currently – delivering higher profit margins in
the process.
Ferrari declined to comment.
The automaker has told investors it is
targeting a core profit margin (EBITDA) of 38-40% in 2026, up from 35.9% in
2021.
Its range could also increase to at least
17 models by 2026, compared to 12 today. But most new models will, at least
initially, have a combustion engine – including its first SUV, the Purosangue,
powered by its massive 12-cylinder engine – although some may be hybrids.
Ferrari currently has four plug-in hybrids
in its lineup.
A zero-emissions future poses the same
challenges for Ferrari as it does for its rivals – EV batteries weigh hundreds
of kilograms, affecting aerodynamics and handling, and cannot match the
sustained power and throaty roar of a gasoline engine. massive burning.
To solve these costly challenges, Ferrari
is researching solid-state batteries, which could theoretically improve battery
power, as well as hydrogen fuel cells and synthetic fuels, both of which face
an uncertain future.
European Union countries agreed this week
to an effective ban on new fossil-fuel car sales, but will assess in 2026
whether hybrid vehicles and synthetic or CO2-neutral fuels could meet that
target.
“In any case where you have a technology
transition, by definition you have a bit of a blurry situation, there is fog,”
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, a veteran of the tech industry, told Reuters. took
office in September.
Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois
describes Ferrari’s approach as “measured” but adds that it may not be popular
with investors as some automakers look to an electric future.
“They can run their profit center with
combustion engines longer and recoup their investment there,” he said. “But
that’s not necessarily what the market wants to hear, because the mindset is to
rush into EVs and never look back.”
AN ELECTRIC WEDDING?
Every 22 minutes on the V8 assembly line in
Maranello, a finished engine and chassis come together in what Ferrari calls a
“marriage”.
For an undisclosed sum, the engine of a V12
model includes a plate bearing the name of the worker who made it.
Ferrari executives point to the emotion
some drivers feel when buying one of their cars, which starts at over 200,000
euros.
“I see customers coming to pick up their
cars and some of them are crying,” Vigna told Reuters.
It is therefore crucial for Ferrari to
create an equally passionate response to its electric vehicles.
Hybrid sports cars have been a hit,
combining powerful engines with the instant acceleration of an electric motor.
But fully electric sports cars currently
have a weight problem due to the huge batteries needed to provide enough power.
Croatian hypercar maker Rimac’s Nevera, for example, weighs 2,200kg, heavier
than fossil-fueled sports cars and heavier than Ford Transit and Mercedes
Sprinter minivans.
This huge weight “in turn affects
performance, driving dynamics and experience,” said Dario Duse, managing
director of consultancy AlixPartners.
Ferrari is not alone in meeting these
challenges, and few ultra-luxury competitors are rushing to go electric.
Lamborghini, for example, is not planning a
fully electric car until the end of the decade.
But, according to AlixPartners’ Duse,
Ferrari needs to weigh its options more carefully than Lamborghini, which has a
deep-pocketed owner in the world’s No. 2 automaker Volkswagen (VW).
“For Ferrari, which unlike Lamborghini does
not have access to a development platform like VW’s, the investment issue is
also certainly relevant,” Duse said.
HYDROGEN TO THE RESCUE?
Among its options, Ferrari is exploring
hydrogen fuel cells, a future zero-emissions solution touted by Japanese
automakers and BMW in Europe that can match the sustained power of combustion
engines.
British startup Viritech is already
building a hydrogen-powered hypercar, with input from Italian car design house
Pininfarina, a limited-edition vehicle weighing 1,000kg that it aims to use to
sell the technology to automakers.
CEO Timothy Lyons said that over the past
18 months, Viritech has seen a “huge spike in interest” from mainstream
automakers for the concept.
But hydrogen fuel cell cars need
infrastructure to produce “green” hydrogen using renewables and fueling
stations, which likely won’t be in place until the 2030s.
Vigna said Ferrari is also working with
four partners in Europe and Asia on battery components to research the next
generation of high-energy-density solid-state batteries, which are lighter than
today’s cells. .
Automakers such as Ford and BMW have
invested in solid-state batteries, but the technology is still a long way from
being used in cars.
“Solid-state batteries are a bit like the
story of hydrogen in that it’s a fuel of the future,” said Jefferies Houchois.
He warned that Ferrari’s slow pace of
change could be seen as dragging its feet or even “socially reprehensible”.
“But from a business perspective, they have
a great deal and it doesn’t have to go away so quickly,” he added.
“They avoid overcommitments that they can
reach at a certain point on a certain date at a certain price because they
don’t know it.”
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