I Like Ferrari’s Luce EV. But This Is Why It’s Heartbreaking

我喜欢法拉利的 Luce 电动车，但这就是它令人心碎的原因

You know things are bad when the Pope gets involved. No doubt reeling from a launch that somehow went down even worse than Ferrari itself anticipated, the Italian carmaker sought to get the endorsement of none other than His Holiness Pope Leo XIV for its first EV, the Luce. 当教皇都卷入其中时，你就知道情况不妙了。毫无疑问，法拉利此次发布会的反响甚至比公司预期的还要糟糕。为了挽回局面，这家意大利汽车制造商竟寻求让教皇利奥十四世（Pope Leo XIV）为其首款电动车 Luce 背书。

Guided by Ferrari chairman John Elkann and senior Ferrari executives, in a hillside town about 15 miles southeast of Rome, the pontiff sat in the driver’s seat and listened patiently as test driver Raffaele De Simone explained the vehicle’s controls and driving modes as if he really was speaking to a man clearly in the market for a 1,000-horsepower electric car capable of hitting 62 mph in 2.5 seconds. 在法拉利董事长约翰·埃尔坎（John Elkann）及高管的陪同下，在罗马东南约 15 英里的一座山城里，教皇坐在驾驶座上，耐心地听着试车手拉斐尔·德·西蒙尼（Raffaele De Simone）讲解车辆的控制系统和驾驶模式，仿佛他真的在向一位急需购买 1000 马力、百公里加速仅需 2.5 秒的电动跑车的客户推销一样。

Meanwhile, as Pope Leo was no doubt pondering how the Luce could boast one of the largest batteries in any production EV yet still only manage a maximum 329 miles, or how an accelerometer on the rear axle somehow worked like a guitar pickup to create in-cabin sound like an “instrument,” the market was speaking. On seeing the $640,000 car design, not by Ferrari, but LoveFrom, the agency founded by Jony Ive in 2019 upon his exit from Apple, the carmaker’s share price dropped 8 percent in morning trading in Milan, while New York-listed shares fell by 5.1 percent, wiping billions off Ferrari’s value. 与此同时，当教皇利奥无疑在思考为什么 Luce 拥有量产电动车中最大的电池之一，续航里程却仅有 329 英里，或者后轴上的加速度计是如何像吉他拾音器一样在车内营造出“乐器”般的声效时，市场已经给出了回应。看到这款售价 64 万美元的汽车设计并非出自法拉利之手，而是由乔尼·艾维（Jony Ive）在 2019 年离开苹果后创立的 LoveFrom 设计公司操刀时，法拉利在米兰的股价早盘下跌了 8%，纽约上市的股票也下跌了 5.1%，市值蒸发了数十亿美元。

Remarkably, Luca di Montezemolo, who was Ferrari’s chairman until 2014, went on camera to share his disgust. “We risk the destruction of a legend,” he said. “I just hope someone removes the prancing horse from that car. This is certainly a machine that the Chinese won’t copy—they won’t need to.” 值得注意的是，曾任法拉利董事长至 2014 年的卢卡·迪·蒙特泽莫罗（Luca di Montezemolo）在镜头前表达了他的厌恶。“我们冒着摧毁一个传奇的风险，”他说，“我只希望有人能把那辆车上的跃马标志抠掉。这绝对是一台中国人不会去抄袭的机器——他们根本不需要。”

In social posts echoing the recent calamitous Swatch X AP launch where disappointed watch fans used AI to fashion a product they really wanted from the collaboration rather than a pocket watch, within minutes the furious Ferrari faithful were posting not only AI-generated “fixes” on Ive and LoveFrom’s vision, but also barbed AI images and videos of the Luce in Fisher-Price mode or as a giant automotive Apple mouse, upturned with a USB cable plugged into its underside. 社交媒体上的帖子呼应了近期 Swatch 与爱彼（AP）那场灾难性的联名发布会——当时失望的表迷们利用 AI 设计出了他们真正想要的联名产品，而不是那款怀表。愤怒的法拉利忠实粉丝在几分钟内不仅发布了 AI 生成的对艾维和 LoveFrom 设计方案的“修复版”，还发布了充满讽刺意味的 AI 图片和视频，将 Luce 描绘成费雪（Fisher-Price）玩具风格，或者一个巨大的汽车版苹果鼠标，底部还插着一根 USB 线。

Having changed tune on posts asking followers “What do you think?”, gleefully smelling blood in the water, initially hesitant but now emboldened car commentators and YouTube hosts are piling on, secure in the knowledge of which way the wind is blowing on the Luce. 在询问粉丝“你们怎么看？”的帖子中改变了口吻，这些最初犹豫不决、现在却胆大包天的汽车评论员和 YouTube 主播们闻到了“血腥味”，开始幸灾乐祸地群起而攻之，因为他们确信舆论的风向已经倒向了反对 Luce 的一边。

But I like the Luce. I find it attractive. I like the purity of its design and how it shows Elon Musk what might have been had he bothered to facelift his Teslas properly. Thankfully, I’m not alone (in the good company of James May, no less). Dale Harrow, chair and director of the Intelligent Mobility Design Center at London’s Royal College of Art, advocates that we should all take a longer view. “I see the haters are saying it’s the end of Ferrari. I’m not so sure,” he says. “It’s very different from the evolutionary path that Ferrari has been following, but this is less emotional, more thoughtful, and appealing to a different audience and owner.” 但我喜欢 Luce。我觉得它很有吸引力。我喜欢它设计的纯粹感，它向埃隆·马斯克展示了如果他肯花心思好好翻新一下特斯拉，本可以达到什么样的高度。谢天谢地，我并不孤单（詹姆斯·梅也持同样观点）。伦敦皇家艺术学院智能移动设计中心主席兼主任戴尔·哈罗（Dale Harrow）主张我们应该放长眼光。“我看到批评者说这是法拉利的末日。我并不确定，”他说，“它与法拉利一直遵循的进化路径截然不同，但它更少了一份感性，多了一份深思熟虑，并且吸引了不同的受众和车主。”

Harrow says the Luce reminds him of early projects from LoveFrom co-founder Marc Newson’s portfolio, such as the Ford 021C, which received criticism from designers when first shown but now looks much better with age, as well as the Kelvin40 jet. “In both, you can see a clarity to the concept, clean proportions and surfaces, and use of contrast graphics and shutlines that are all evident in the Luce,” Harrow says. 哈罗表示，Luce 让他想起了 LoveFrom 联合创始人马克·纽森（Marc Newson）早期作品集中的项目，比如福特 021C——它在首次亮相时曾受到设计师的批评，但如今看来却愈发耐看，还有 Kelvin40 喷气机。“在这两件作品中，你能看到概念的清晰度、简洁的比例和表面，以及对比鲜明的图形和接缝处理，这些在 Luce 上都体现得淋漓尽致，”哈罗说。

Admittedly, Harrow also says the Luce is “a very difficult package” with the battery size, giving the electric vehicle “ungainly proportions that make it very difficult to make a beautiful car.” Harrow adds that, if you employ Ive and Newson to design a car, “you have some of the best designers that have ever practiced,” and that the Luce will likely attract a different type of high-wealth customer. “It may not be what everyone expects from Ferrari, but its clarity and confidence show an additional direction for the brand. I can’t wait to see it for real,” Harrow says. 诚然，哈罗也承认，由于电池尺寸的原因，Luce 是一个“非常棘手的方案”，这使得这辆电动车拥有“笨拙的比例，很难将其设计成一辆漂亮的汽车”。哈罗补充说，如果你聘请艾维和纽森来设计汽车，“你就拥有了业内最顶尖的设计师”，而且 Luce 很可能会吸引不同类型的高净值客户。“它可能不是每个人对法拉利的期待，但它的清晰度和自信展示了该品牌的一个新方向。我迫不及待想亲眼见到它，”哈罗说。

Not what everyone expects from Ferrari. Harrow is right. I don’t particularly care that this isn’t what received wisdom states is what a Ferrari should look like. I may even like it more because of this very fact. As a WIRED writer, I also like it because it reveals what the world might have got had Apple made good on its automotive ambitions, scratching an itch those of us following the Cupertino company’s motoring machinations have been suffering with for more than a decade. 不是每个人对法拉利的期待。哈罗是对的。我并不特别在意它是否符合传统观念中法拉利应有的样子。甚至正因如此，我反而更喜欢它。作为一名《连线》杂志的作者，我也喜欢它，因为它揭示了如果苹果实现了其汽车雄心，世界本可能会得到什么样的产品，这满足了我们这些长期关注这家库比蒂诺公司造车计划的人十多年来的好奇心。

Apple spent 10 years, and reportedly more than $10 billion, developing an EV, codenamed Project Titan, before scrapping it in 2024 to focus on, yes, AI. More than 2,000 people were supposedly working on it when Apple pulled the plug, including engineers who had worked for NASA and Porsche. And no one has ever seen it. 苹果花费了 10 年时间，据报道投入了超过 100 亿美元，开发了一款代号为“泰坦计划”（Project Titan）的电动车，最终在 2024 年将其搁置，转而专注于——没错，就是 AI。当苹果叫停该项目时，据称有超过 2000 人参与其中，包括曾效力于 NASA 和保时捷的工程师。而至今没人见过它的真容。

With Ive only departing Apple in 2019, he had years at the company before he and a core team left to form LoveFrom, the agency that Ferrari very much placed in the driving seat to craft its first-ever EV. The Luce, with its considered rounded corners, brushed aluminum, and sculpted “glass-house” exterior, has all the hallmarks of the products that Ive spent decades perfecting at Apple. 艾维直到 2019 年才离开苹果，他在公司工作多年，随后与核心团队离职创立了 LoveFrom。法拉利正是将这家公司推向了主导地位，来打造其首款电动车。Luce 拥有考究的圆角设计、拉丝铝材质以及雕塑般的“玻璃房”外观，具备了艾维在苹果公司花费数十年不断完善的产品的所有特征。

Is the Luce Apple’s never-made EV in all but name? To its already vociferous social media critics, it certainly is. With its hints of Alfa and Tesla, it has landed a long way from the brand’s lauded stable of iconic cars. Ive himself has described the Luce as “still clearly a Ferrari,” but cannily admits that it represents “a different manifestation based on some of the beliefs around simplicity.” Luce 是否就是苹果那款从未问世的电动车的化身？对于社交媒体上那些喧嚣的批评者来说，答案是肯定的。它带有阿尔法·罗密欧和特斯拉的影子，与该品牌备受赞誉的标志性车型系列相去甚远。艾维本人将 Luce 描述为“依然是一辆纯粹的法拉利”，但也精明地承认，它代表了“基于某些极简主义理念的一种不同表现形式”。

A different manifestation indeed, one that—had it arrived as the Apple car, and not costing a staggering $640,000—would have likely been universally praised as a triumph. And remember, aside from Newson’s concept, this is from a team that has never designed a car before. 确实是一种不同的表现形式，如果它以苹果汽车的身份问世，且售价没有高达惊人的 64 万美元，它很可能会被普遍赞誉为一次胜利。别忘了，除了纽森的概念设计外，这支团队此前从未设计过汽车。

Crucially, you cannot blame Ferrari for actually trying something new here. Luxury EVs are bo 至关重要的是，你不能责怪法拉利在这里尝试了新事物。豪华电动车市场正在……