Ferrari outlines its electrification strategy

ITALY’S famous red-car brand is going green! The Maranello-based brand will invest €4.4 billion ($A6.6b) to develop new battery-electric and hybrid models that will make up 60 per cent of its line-up by 2026, the firm’s CEO Benedetto Vigna announced this week.

GoAuto recently reported that Ferrari was expected to make an announcement that would outline the company’s (rather belated) shift toward electrification and it duly happened at an investor briefing at the firm’s headquarters in Italy this week.

Indeed, Mr Vigna confirmed Ferrari would launch its first battery-electric vehicle (BEV) in 2025 and predicted that BEVs and hybrids should make up 80 per cent of Ferrari's sales by 2030.

Whereas Ferrari expected BEVs to make up five per cent of sales in 2025, that figure will rise to 40 per cent in 2030. Hybrid models should rise to 55 per cenbt of sales in 2025, before slipping to 40 per cent in 2030.

Mr Vigna also confirmed that the Prancing Horse would expand its Maranello facilities to, apart from producing new EVs, develop electric motors, inverters and battery modules.

However, to save many, Ferrari will outsource non-core components and not develop an operating system for EVs. This is quite a bold move on the part of the Italian marque, because Tesla and Mercedes-Benz assert that proprietary operating systems are critical to managing wireless upgrades and collecting data on drivers’ habits and preferences.

"I will never build a Ferrari operating system, I would be foolish," Mr Vigna told investors. "You have to focus on the areas where you can be the best."

Mr Vigna, who joined Ferrari from chipmaker STMicroelectronics last year, has restructured several of the firm’s divisions (including product development) to streamline decision-making. Bloomberg reports that he hired trusted tech executives from his former employer and partnered with Qualcomm to work on more digitalised car cockpits.

What’s more, Ferrari is working with a quartet of partners in Europe and Asia on battery components to research the next generation of high energy density solid state batteries.

Some commentators have questioned whether all-electric and hybrid Ferraris will evoke the same kind of passion as their ICE precursors have, but the Maranello-based marque said its EVs would leverage the company’s racing know-how to ensure they stand out when it comes to “engine power density, weight, sound and driving emotions.”

"Everything we do will always focus on being distinctively Ferrari," the firm’s chairman John Elkann said. Electrification "will allow us to make even more unique cars."

Although Ferrari’s profit margins are enviable, its stock has underperformed recently, partly due to investor concern about the costs associated with rapid electrification.

Ferrari vowed its EV investments wouldn’t come at the expensive of profitability… The company predicts adjusted EBITDA of as much as €2.7 billion ($A4b) in 2026, up from about €1.5 billion ($A2.2b) last year and targets a nine per cent compounded annual growth rate.

Meanwhile, the Purosangue SUV will be launched in three months’ time; Ferrari’s head of sales, Enrico Galliera, said the firm had been “overwhelmed” by early demand for the SUV, but would always remain mindful of keeping the exclusive cachet of the brand. 

“Ferrari will always deliver one car less than the market demands,” Mr Vigna said, evoking the famous motto of company founder Enzo Ferrari.