I was at the Ferrari Luce EV launch before the backlash

The launch that turned into a PR crisis for Ferrari started about six weeks ago when an invitation landed in my inbox to come to the unveiling of the Luce, its very first full electric car.

The event was so controlled that security blocked our phone cameras to stop unauthorized pictures of the 550,000-euro EV, which so disappointed investors that the company’s stock fell 8% the next day. But the event was a reminder of how big a step the company was taking and how the car’s real test will be when it comes to market.

On Monday evening, I was whooshed alongside hundreds of guests in dark vans, escorted by police, to the Vela di Calatrava sports complex on the outskirts of Rome.

Security stickered our phones and laptop cameras to cover the cameras and checked multiple times in case we had tampered with them.

All the secrecy and almost solemnity added to the anticipation of a launch that was five years in the making.

Under what looked like the skeleton of a whale, elements of the car were on display under tamed lights: the platform, seats and other parts that had been previously presented, including those designed by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive.

Later on stage and under a sculptural piece by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, family scion and Ferrari Chair John Elkann opened the presentation, followed by CEO Benedetto Vigna and other top managers. A short video of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc having fun driving the new Luce, still a mystery to us at this point, added to the reveal build-up.

Finally, after an hour, the piece de resistance: the Luce (“light” in Italian), presented in five colours, drove in, with flashing lights and loud music.

Full disclosure, I don’t even have a driving license – but even I could tell straight away this was a significant departure from the Ferrari look. And while the Luce comes in red, it was mostly showcased in blue, including in the marketing material released later by Ferrari, adding to the style shock.

A DJ was rolled out when we were finally allowed to get close to the cars. As the evening was coming to an end, I sat in the new Luce, discovering a luxurious camel interior. It felt spacious – the first ever five-seater for Ferrari – and smelled expensive.

But the party really came to an end on Tuesday morning. Ferrari shares dropped 8% on the day, and the car received a deluge of criticism on social media – cue memes and AI-generated videos of a crying Enzo Ferrari.

Yet, Ferrari had hinted that the new car would look different. As RBC’s Tom Naryan said of the launch: “The reason that Ferrari partnered with an external designer (for the first time…