Ferrari’s Luce sparks memes—and boosts classic values

Ferrari Luce – When Ferrari unveiled the electric Luce, reactions online turned religious fast—pushing Ulf Poschardt, a long-time Ferrari owner, to say the uproar is helping make classic Ferraris more valuable. He describes a split between the brand’s analog past and an EV t

The morning after Ferrari unveiled the electric Luce, the internet looked like it had been lit on purpose. The argument wasn’t about range or charging. It was about meaning—how far a brand can stretch before fans start feeling that something holy has been touched.

Ulf Poschardt. publisher of WELT. POLITICO Germany. and Business Insider Germany. watched the reaction with the uneasy familiarity of someone who has lived inside Ferrari’s mythology for decades. He has been driving Ferraris for 25 years. As a child from a modest background. he bought his first Ferrari with his first severance pay—a fiery red Ferrari 328 GTB. He describes it as “pretty mediocre. ” but says the adventure felt real: a kid from a rough neighborhood. in a car with the prancing horse on the steering wheel.

Twenty-five years later, he says there are four black Ferraris in his garage. He calls them “useless but magnificent sports cars” that still bring him joy that nothing else in his life—aside from his sons—matches. In his telling, Ferraris run on more than engineering. They jolt a life he describes as otherwise “rational and rigorous.”.

That’s why the Luce landed differently. Poschardt says he doesn’t love it because he’s a Ferrari fan, or because he’s trying to buy one. He loves it because, in his view, it has made him richer—by making classic Ferraris “even more attractive and valuable.”

He ties that to what happens when a symbol changes shape in public. Classic Ferraris have always been his passion, and now, he says, they’re becoming his retirement fund.

The Luce debate isn’t just aesthetic, he argues. It’s emotional—and it’s about what Ferraris used to feel like. He quotes Enzo Ferrari’s line that with Ferrari you’re “really just buying the engine” and getting the rest of the car “for free,” presenting it as the brand’s long-standing logic.

With the Luce, he says, the engine hero story breaks. He describes an electric car as something that. at first glance. has “nothing to do” with the heroism of old Lampredi or Colombo engines. It no longer has “fascinating mechanics” or a “vibrating heart of metal.” Instead. he writes that it resembles a digital device on wheels.

For Poschardt, that shift shows up in the way people talk about the car. The moral significance of modern mobility, he says, “simply looks like the Luce,” while older Ferraris look like the kinds of machines that carry their own legends—he points to a Challenge Stradale, an F40, and a 250 GTO.

He also says the backlash reveals a deeper truth about Ferrari’s power. “How much Ferrari is a brand close to people’s hearts” is obvious. he writes. in the fierce reactions from people who may never own one yet still feel a deep emotional connection. To them, he argues, it isn’t reality that’s crumbling—it’s a myth.

And then he explains what he believes Ferrari tried to do with the Luce. Ferrari’s concept. he says. has always been to translate the brutal and raw into the most elegant and sophisticated aesthetics imaginable and bring them into the present. The Luce, by contrast, uses mimicry that he calls almost childish.

He describes the car as reminiscent in places of a Flintstones car and Playmobil vehicles—imagery that makes his criticism feel pointed. He writes that CEO Benedetto Vigna and Chairman of the Supervisory Board John Elkann likely understood the risk: the potential sacrilege in a Ferrari design that plays like a joke.

Poschardt places the blame—or credit, depending on how you see it—on Ferrari’s choice of designers. He says that with Marc Newson and Jony Ive. Ferrari brought in two designers from the digital world and that their goal wasn’t nostalgia. He says they didn’t want to hide electric innards behind older shapes. Instead, he writes, they built something he calls an “anti-Ferrari.”.

That anti-tradition shows up in the branding itself. He says the logo is no longer proudly displayed, but “almost demonstratively embossed,” framing it as a “clever, almost philosophical punchline.”

In his view, the Luce also looks geographically unanchored. He describes it as an object with “no geographical origin” and “without cultural memory. ” unlike older Ferraris that. he says. looked as if they belonged on country roads around Lake Como or along the curves of southern French coastal roads.

The Luce, he writes, comes from the abstract space of the digital present—everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He links that to the modern worldview of “digital founders and multimillionaires. ” who often define their worldview “precisely in contrast” to the old analog industrial age. In that contrast. he says. the car becomes something different: “a car for emotionally detached intellectuals with no need for compensatory status symbols.”.

His strongest argument for why the meme storm matters financially is simple: people are still emotionally invested in Ferrari. He says the memes show “how emotionally charged this brand remains to this day.” The Luce violates the realm of dreams and desires. he argues—and that violation creates demand elsewhere.

For Poschardt, there’s a practical consequence. The Luce may go down in Ferrari history as its boldest gamble or a spectacular dead end. he writes. but the certainty is that Ferrari is attempting the transformation “not cautiously. but radically.” He describes that radical approach as a remnant of old Ferrari megalomania.

At the same time, he says the Luce is also anti-distinction. Precisely because it looks like a Nissan. he writes. it makes itself small and almost inconspicuous—despite “highly valuable technology” hidden underneath. He points to a powertrain concept with over 1. 000 horsepower. designed to accelerate the Luce to up to 310 km/h on the highway.

Yet he adds a human detail that brings the story back to money. He says someone recently called him and offered a lot of money for his black Testarossa. The caller saw a video of his triumphant ride the day after the Luce presentation. Poschardt says. “I don’t sell.” He adds that he will never sell. presenting himself as “the guardian angel of Enzo Ferrari’s spirit.”.

Ferrari Luce electric Ferrari classic Ferrari values Ulf Poschardt Ferrari 328 GTB Testarossa Benedetto Vigna John Elkann Marc Newson Jony Ive 1000 horsepower 310 km/h