How Ferrari bungled the design of its first EV
How Ferrari bungled the design of its first EV
法拉利是如何搞砸其首款电动汽车设计的
The Luce could be the most universally disliked Ferrari ever unveiled. How did the Maranello-based automaker get it so wrong? Luce 可能是法拉利有史以来最不受大众欢迎的车型。这家总部位于马拉内罗的汽车制造商究竟哪里出了错？
For nearly 80 years, Ferrari occupied a unique cultural space where its cars were aspirational, even for people who resented those who could afford them. The price, the exclusivity, and the opacity of the buying process allowed Ferrari to sail above ordinary criticism. You might not be able to afford one, but you still wanted one. 近 80 年来，法拉利占据了一个独特的文化空间，其汽车令人心向往之，即使是那些对买得起法拉利的人心怀不满的人也不例外。高昂的价格、排他性以及购车流程的不透明，使得法拉利能够超脱于普通的批评之上。你可能买不起，但你依然渴望拥有一辆。
With the launch of the all-electric Luce this week, however, the company fell down to earth, drawing the ire of the internet in the form of derision, mocking memes, and AI slop. People compared it to a vacuum, a Magic Mouse, and, most insultingly, a Nissan Leaf. 然而，随着本周纯电动车型 Luce 的发布，该公司跌落神坛，招致了互联网的愤怒，嘲讽、恶搞表情包和 AI 生成的垃圾内容铺天盖地。人们将其比作吸尘器、苹果 Magic Mouse 鼠标，甚至更具侮辱性地将其比作日产聆风（Nissan Leaf）。
The Luce has arrived in a moment where wealth inequality and corporate excess have rarely been this visible or this resented. In that environment, a car that costs more than most people earn in a decade, yet looks like something bland and mass market, was always going to land hard. Ferrari has always sold desire across class lines. The $640,000-plus Luce homogenizes the aesthetic while keeping the Ferrari price, enraging loyalists and fans alike. Luce 问世的时刻，正值贫富差距和企业过度消费现象前所未有地显眼且令人反感。在这种环境下，一辆价格超过大多数人十年收入、外观却平庸且像大众市场产品的车，注定会遭遇滑铁卢。法拉利一直以来都在跨越阶层销售“欲望”。售价超过 64 万美元的 Luce 在保持法拉利高价的同时，却让审美变得平庸，这激怒了忠实拥趸和粉丝。
“The reaction illustrates how intrinsically the brand identity, expectations, and design are tied together,” Derek Jenkins, the SVP of Design and Brand at Lucid, told The Verge. “I can see a couple of things in the exterior design that still reference the brand. The taillights for one, the red color option, and finally, the logo. Everything else — proportions, lack of visual agility, even the expression of performance — is missing from the exterior. The face of the car isn’t identifiable… It’s a mismatch with the brand.” “这种反应说明了品牌形象、用户期望和设计之间是多么紧密地联系在一起，” Lucid 设计与品牌高级副总裁 Derek Jenkins 对 The Verge 表示。“我能从外观设计中看到一些仍然指向该品牌的元素。比如尾灯、红色选项，以及最后的标志。除此之外的一切——比例、缺乏视觉灵动感，甚至是性能的表达——在外观上都缺失了。车头无法辨认……这与品牌不匹配。”
“The face of the car isn’t identifiable… It’s a mismatch with the brand.” — Derek Jenkins, SVP of Design and Brand at Lucid “车头无法辨认……这与品牌不匹配。”—— Derek Jenkins，Lucid 设计与品牌高级副总裁
The vehicle was designed in partnership with famed Apple designers Jony Ive and Marc Newson, through their firm LoveFrom, and boasts four motors, 1,035 horsepower, and around 500 km of electric range. Ive has been notoriously critical of car designers in the past, saying that he found some modern looks “shocking,” but recently admitted that he was surprised by how difficult it was to design a car. 这款车是与著名的苹果设计师 Jony Ive 和 Marc Newson 通过他们的公司 LoveFrom 合作设计的，拥有四个电机、1035 马力以及约 500 公里的续航里程。Ive 过去以对汽车设计师的严苛批评而闻名，曾称一些现代外观设计“令人震惊”，但最近他承认，自己对设计一辆汽车的难度感到惊讶。
The Luce is the longest Ferrari ever built, eschewing the brand’s traditional sharp, aggressive lines for a more sweeping, aerodynamic profile. It’s also Ferrari’s first five-seater, with a low stance that almost makes it seem like a hatchback. It looks as though its sleek, dark “glass house” cabin is nested inside a separate, chunkier aluminum shell. And instead of a traditional grille, it features an S-duct swoop that drops down. It’s baffling to look at. Luce 是法拉利有史以来最长的车型，它摒弃了品牌传统的锋利、激进的线条，转而采用更流畅、更符合空气动力学的轮廓。它也是法拉利首款五座车型，低矮的姿态使其看起来几乎像是一辆掀背车。它看起来就像是其光滑、深色的“玻璃房”座舱被嵌套在一个独立、更厚实的铝制外壳中。而且它没有传统的格栅，取而代之的是一个向下俯冲的 S 型导流槽。看起来令人困惑。
As Raphael Zammit, chair of transportation design at the College for Creative Studies in Michigan, explained, industrial design and automotive design are two very different disciplines, and the skills from one do not consistently translate to the other. Ive’s Apple iPhone design made the physical phone disappear, Zammit said, and was “100 percent appropriate for a digital communication device that you hold in your hand.” But a Ferrari is not an iPhone. 正如密歇根创意研究学院交通设计系主任 Raphael Zammit 所解释的那样，工业设计和汽车设计是两个截然不同的学科，前者的技能并不总是能转化到后者。Zammit 说，Ive 的苹果 iPhone 设计让物理手机本身“消失”了，这对于“你拿在手中的数字通信设备来说是 100% 合适的”。但法拉利不是 iPhone。
Ferrari’s decision to hire LoveFrom was a choice with a built-in logic, Zammit argued. “Ive is a brand,” he said. “When you hire Brad Pitt, you expect to get Brad Pitt.” The interior of the Luce has been praised for its blend of analog and digital touchpoints. But the interior language would likely be much more at home in a small premium city car, he added, such as a Fiat 500 or a Cinquecento, not a supercar that retails for half a million dollars. Zammit 认为，法拉利聘请 LoveFrom 的决定有着内在的逻辑。“Ive 本身就是一个品牌，”他说。“当你聘请布拉德·皮特时，你期望得到的就是布拉德·皮特。”Luce 的内饰因其模拟和数字触点的融合而受到称赞。但他补充说，这种内饰语言在小型高端城市车（如菲亚特 500 或 Cinquecento）中会更合适，而不是在零售价高达 50 万美元的超级跑车上。
Ferrari shares fell about 8 percent in Milan and 5.3 percent in New York the day after the unveiling, and hovered around that level through Wednesday, with analysts citing a mix of “design hate” and investor concerns about R&D costs and return on investment. Despite the public blowback, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said on Thursday that “interest was strong” in the Luce, especially with new customers, and the stock has since risen back to the prelaunch levels. 发布会次日，法拉利股价在米兰下跌约 8%，在纽约下跌 5.3%，并一直徘徊在该水平至周三。分析师将其归因于“对设计的厌恶”以及投资者对研发成本和投资回报的担忧。尽管公众反应强烈，法拉利首席执行官 Benedetto Vigna 周四表示，Luce 的“市场兴趣浓厚”，尤其是来自新客户的兴趣，此后股价已回升至发布前水平。
Stephanie Brinley, automotive analyst at S&P Global Mobility, said that the blowback has intensified as a direct result of the economic and political moment we’re living through. “It might end up being a blip on Ferrari’s overall history,” she continued, “I don’t see why this particular vehicle needs to destroy the Ferrari legacy.” 标普全球移动（S&P Global Mobility）的汽车分析师 Stephanie Brinley 表示，这种强烈的反弹是我们所处的经济和政治时刻的直接结果。“这最终可能只是法拉利整体历史上的一个小插曲，”她继续说道，“我不认为这款特定的车型会摧毁法拉利的遗产。”
A moment of collective trolling
集体嘲讽时刻
The design criticism has come from far and wide, including harsh words from Italian officials and even the former president and chairman of Ferrari. It’s even spread beyond automotive media and Wall Street, landing on general culture sites, political accounts, and feeds with no particular interest in cars. 设计批评来自四面八方，包括意大利官员甚至法拉利前总裁兼董事长的严厉措辞。它甚至超出了汽车媒体和华尔街的范围，出现在了大众文化网站、政治账号以及对汽车并无特别兴趣的社交媒体信息流中。
Luca di Montezemolo, the former president, said the Luce risks “destroying a myth,” adding: “I hope they at least take the prancing horse from that car.” Italian Transportation Minister Matteo Salvini echoed the sentiment. Ferrari declined to comment on either. Competitors in the supercar world were also watching. Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann, without commenting directly on the Luce, said his company’s decision to cancel its EV plans and focus on plug-in hybrids was “the right way to go,” adding that innovation should not be made for its own sake or forced on customers. 前总裁 Luca di Montezemolo 表示，Luce 有“摧毁神话”的风险，并补充道：“我希望他们至少把那辆车上的跃马标志拿掉。”意大利交通部长 Matteo Salvini 也表达了同样的看法。法拉利拒绝就这两人的言论发表评论。超级跑车界的竞争对手也在关注。兰博基尼首席执行官 Stephan Winkelmann 在没有直接评论 Luce 的情况下表示，他公司决定取消电动汽车计划并专注于插电式混合动力车是“正确的方向”，并补充说创新不应为了创新而创新，也不应强加给客户。
Among automotive designers, the criticism is no less blunt. “It is brutally bland, actually. It really does look as if it was designed by AI. It’s like a mathematical averaging of many different themes,” Zammit said, adding that, “it’s almost alarming.” 在汽车设计师中，批评同样毫不留情。“它实际上平庸得令人发指。它看起来确实像是 AI 设计的。就像是许多不同主题的数学平均值，”Zammit 说，并补充道，“这简直令人担忧。”