13:51 27-05-2026

Pope Drives Ferrari's First Electric Car: The Luce EV

Ferrari's first electric car, the Luce, got a papal test drive. The €550k EV caused an 8% stock drop. Read about the controversy and market reaction.

Ferrari's first electric car has found an unexpected driver. Pope Leo XIV took the wheel of a blue-tinted Ferrari Luce at the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where company representatives brought the vehicle.

The Pope was personally introduced to the car by Ferrari's top executives, including President John Elkann. As he sat down, he asked if it was Ferrari's first four-door car. They clarified that it was actually the company's first five-seat model. The car itself was not left with the Pope — only the steering wheel was gifted.

The Luce is Ferrari's first fully electric vehicle. It was unveiled on May 26, and the market response was chilly: shares dropped over 8%, wiping out roughly €5 billion, about $5.4 billion, and 388 billion rubles in value. Corriere della Sera calculated that this equals the price of about 9,000 such electric cars.

The Luce is priced at €550,000 (roughly $594,000 or 42.5 million rubles). That's more than the most expensive traditional Ferrari, which, according to Italian media, doesn't exceed €460,000. The company isn't banking on mass profits from the electric car, describing it as more of a status product.

The main controversy around the Luce isn't its price, but what it symbolizes. Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said the company risks ruining its legend with such a product and expressed hope that the prancing horse emblem would be removed from the electric car.

Ferrari didn't enter the electric era quietly — it did so with a grand gesture: the Pope, a blue Luce, a price higher than classic models, and a drop in market cap. For some, this is the brand's future; for others, it's the moment the horse first ran without the sound of an engine.