Ferrari is reportedly using its first-ever EV, the Luce, a €550,000 model that looks more like a cross between a Tesla and a Kia, as a loyalty test inside its highly coveted allocation system.
Ferrari's allocation system is a notoriously exclusive, invitation-only process managed directly by the factory in Maranello. Rather than using waitlists, Ferrari curates ownership by evaluating a buyer's loyalty to the brand, requiring customers to build a multi-million-dollar history of ownership, participate in factory events, and retain cars in order to qualify to buy hypercars right off the production line.
Bloomberg sources say Ferrari is dangling the Luce to buyers in its allocation program, not only to offload the widely unpopular EV but also to give clients a path to move up in the allocation system.
"It is like a restaurant where it is impossible to get a table," Max Girardo, founder of collector-car advisory firm Girardo & Co. and a former RM Sotheby's auctioneer and motor-car specialist, told the outlet in an interview.
Girardo noted, "If you go every week, eventually they find you one. With Ferrari, the more you buy, the more you are treated as an important client."
Here's more detail on what Ferrari is telling clients in their allocation system:
Bloomberg spoke with more than half a dozen investors and collectors from Italy to China to gather details about how Ferrari communicated with clients following the Luce’s presentation.
One buyer said Ferrari made clear to him that taking the car mattered if he wanted to keep his place among top clients.
Another collector said the company is signaling to many clients, especially potential new buyers, that access to a future one-off model may first depend on buying the Luce or cheaper entry-level models.
Ferrari has long preserved its pricing power by intentionally keeping production below market demand, with output capped at roughly 14,000 vehicles last year. That scarcity drives the brand's exclusivity and fuels its coveted allocation system.
The Luce will likely still be purchased by clients looking to leapfrog in the allocation system, especially if it helps secure access to more desirable future releases.
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Our view is that the Luce risks becoming a modern repeat of the Mondial, the less-loved Ferrari produced in the 1980s and early 1990s that has been shunned by collectors.