I think it was Richard Hammond who, on the old Top Gear show, pointed out that Ferrari’s technical statistics were often flat-out lies: “How many horsepower does our new model have? A million!”
It’s not just their statistics, though. Try this one on for size:
Legendary Italian car maker Ferrari has no intention of phasing out combustion engines and going fully electric or hybrid anytime soon, promising Sunday to keep making the eight and 12-cylinder engines it has made its trademark at least until the end of the 2030s. (May 2023)
And then there’s this one:
An iconic supercar brand is set to launch its first ever EV, with a new factory already in the works. The luxury car giant is planning to open a new facility in Italy to produce its new all-electric models.
Who could this be, this “luxury car giant”?
Ferrari boss Benedetto Vigna confirmed that the company was on the right track in developing a new electric car. (November 2023)
I know, I know: this isn’t exactly a lie: Ferrari never said that they’d make only internal combustion engine (ICE) cars… but they sure as hell skated around the issue.
Just as they do with their technical specs.
And of course, they’ll cheat when it comes to the sound their new Duracell cars will make.
Bastardi.
I think that there are three supercar brands in the entire world that can beat a Korean EV’s nought to sixty time and they cost like fifty times more. I had the misfortune to own a couple of performance cars and I got sick of the nonstop noise. Just as I am sick of the lack of noise when watching a Formula 1 race with their hybrid engines. The main advantage of a loud exhaust note is that everyone looks to see what’s making such a fucking racket and while they’re looking at the car they can’t help seeing you in it. So Ferrari is offering customers a choice. Sex appeal, status, petrolhead engine noise optional extra. House catching fire when the batteries spontaneously ignite, that’s one way to get rid of the bodies.
Are you saying that I can’t always believe what salespeople tell me?? Or that Italians seem to have volatile emotional responses when confronted with news they don’t like? Next you’ll be telling me I can’t trust the promises made by the honorable people who want me to vote for them. You’re destroying my world view.
…… and it’s not like Ferrari hasn’t done this before. The Dino was marketed and sold as a separate Brand and not an ” Official” FERRARI. So, what ever they do to create an electric car may be treated the same way. I don’t think that they are concerned that they will be somehow prevented from selling new ICE cars in the important Calif / L. A. Market. They can always just move the dealers to Vegas.
Having grown up surrounded by Italians (Argentina/Uruguay) as well as Germans and Brits, the grandstanding and over the top announcements of any kind from Italy are to be taken with a boulder of salt. If my BS radar is still in good fettle, this is all for show to keep the EU side off their ass. Italians themselves don’t care a whit for electric cars, I mean really, do people who drive the Lambretta and “chinquecento” since forever care about mileage or going “green”? Pfft! Also, do folks that can afford one or more of the brand care about anything at all (other than themselves and the bank account)?
If and when the entire EU is driving rolling toasters, ICE will still be king, Oh, and likely the EU will be long gone before then
There’s a lot of high end buyers who want to (a) flaunt their status and (b) virtue signal.
It makes business sense right for Ferrari to produce either an all electric vehicle, or some sort of hybrid.
And it makes long term business sense to develop the technology. Regardless of what you and I might know about the feasibility and desirability of ICE or Hybrid engines, there is nothing but common sense to keep the EU government (or the US government) from enacting legislation that simply bans ICE. California has banned them, as I understand it, *BY EXECUTIVE ORDER*. This means that if Ferrari wants to sell cars with ICE in California, then they have to sell a certain percentage of EVs.
Clarkson brought this up after reviewing another supercar on TG BBC moons ago (need to dig that clip up), but here’s one when they reviewed the Abarth EV with a monster speaker under the car rearend:
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/speed-week-2023/video-listen-fully-electric-abarth-500e-revving
Fake engine/exhaust sound for Battery Adult Toys (with all the same double entendre connotations) is the same as Tofu turkey or Lab Meat…the fools work hard to directly imitate the very thing they are despising. Same goes with lesbian couples, one always works to look like the male in the “relationship.
Fake is still fake, yet people embrace this foolishness. PT Barnum was right.
It isn’t just the electrics. I love everything about my Golf R except the fake engine noise enhancement. It is just stupid amd it seems all the automakers are doing it.