The Ferrari of electric vehicles

0:00Remember Joe Biden? Come on, man. He loved electric vehicles. Donald Trump, not so much. Everything's computer. But EVs are happening whether the powers that be want them or not. And on Today's Explain from Vox, we're going to talk about two big, splashy entries into the market. First up, the Ferrari Luce. To represent the Luce, there are three key words that are Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari. Designed by the same guy who helped design the iPhone, believe it or not. Second up, the Slate Truck. So when you see a Slate Truck, it should tug at your heart. That's what we're going for. A little electric truck that doesn't even have power windows, believe it or not.

0:45But what we really want to know on the show is if either of these two cars are good enough or swaggy enough or cheap enough to help Americans get over that electric hump. Come on, man.

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1:42I'm Andrew Hawkins, and I'm the transportation editor at The Verge. And I guess last week was a big week for you because Ferrari, of all companies, put out an EV. Yeah, it was a pretty exciting week for people who have very strong feelings about Ferrari, which I was surprised to learn is a lot of people. There's a lot of people who have very, you know, sort of a roller coaster of emotions about Ferrari, which was amazing. I love it. Because people were really excited that Ferrari put out the CV? excited is is not the word i would use to describe it i would say aghast uh or dismayed maybe would be a better way it's i don't think it's really an understatement to say it was greeted by a chorus of booze i try my best to not just come online and be negative but that new ferrari luce is the ugliest car i've ever seen when you look at a car especially ferrari It needs to make you feel something.

2:43This makes me feel numb. Actually, it makes me feel a little bit angry. This looks like the kind of thing that even football mums would just ding the door of whenever they went to Tesco's because they don't care about it. What has happened to Ferrari? So there's a whole spectrum of mad about the Luce. There were people who were mad on principle that Ferrari would deign to put out an electric vehicle. I don't hate it as a car, but I hate it as a Ferrari. There are people who are mad about the design of the car, the way that it looked, right? Which was very much not like a Ferrari. It was sort of the antithesis of what a Ferrari looks like.

3:25The rims are goofy and cartoonish. There are no lines, no detail, nothing that screams luxury, speed, or even style. And there were people who were mad about the associations with Johnny Ive and his design firm, which sort of took over a lot of the design aspects of the vehicle. Make an EV that embodies art and performance, not this bland bar of soap with a blocky interior.

3:53Let's talk about the design. People say it looks like a Nissan Leaf. That was really cold. Much like most of these electric vehicles, right, They have to be kind of shaped like a jelly bean in a lot of ways because of aerodynamic considerations. You know, I saw one person describe it as similar to how the Apple Magic Mouse looks, the wireless Mac Mouse that Johnny Ive helped design. So I think it just sort of looks kind of like a slab to a lot of people. And that is just not the traditional Ferrari. Surely that was part of the plan, right? We're making an EV. We're venturing into this new realm.

4:33let's not have it look like the Ferraris of yore? I think absolutely it was. I think that there was a sense inside the company that they needed to do something that was different than the rest of their lineup, right? Like if Ferrari's getting put out an EV, they couldn't just take one of their classic models and just sort of stick an electric motor on it and call it a day. They wanted to start from sort of first principles, a blank slate, if you will. And I think bringing Johnny Ive and his firm Love From into the process was sort of a way of signaling that this was going to be something that was not in keeping with Ferrari's traditional design.

5:15There's a lot of people who really liked the inside of the vehicle and the way that it kind of blends digital and analog controls. There's a lot of switches and toggles and grab bars and physical touch points that really I think a lot of people were excited about. Because sort of in the EV world, you're just dealing with what is essentially just like a giant computer on wheels for the most part. And I think that that excited a lot of people. And then the actual car came out and people got pissed off.

5:48I mean, when I heard people saying it looks like a Nissan Leaf, I went to looked up, of course, what a Nissan Leaf looks like. And if we're being honest, like they're not wrong. It looks like a nicer version of a Nissan Leaf on the outside. But then I went to The Verge and I looked at your guys' coverage and I saw all these incredible photos of the inside. And on the inside, you start to sort of understand why this car might cost something like$700 ,000. Although that still feels expensive. What are people getting for$600 ,000 and some thousand dollars? You know, just to be sort of like to set expectations here, no one has driven this car yet, right?

6:32Like it's just been revealed to the public for the first time last week. I think that they allowed a couple of F1 drivers, Lewis Hamilton amongst them, get behind some of the pre-production models. The power delivery is amazing. You just feel centered the whole time, even when you're going through corners, which is really nice. That's probably why I was so relaxed. You were pushing like crazy. No, no, no, no, no, no. Please don't do that. LH, LH, LH. No one's actually tested the vehicle, so we don't know how it drives. We don't know how it performs on the track or out on the road. And I think that that's going to really say a lot, right?

7:06Because in a lot of ways, driving an electric car these days, it's remarkably similar from brand to brand. You get behind the wheel of a Nissan Leaf or a Hyundai or even a Tesla, and you're going to get a lot of the same kind of driving characteristics. The instant torque, the really quick acceleration, the smoothness, the quietness of the interior cabin. So you get all these things that are just sort of common across electric vehicles writ large. So I think, again, what Ferrari is trying to do here with this model is they're trying to sort of maybe bring in a new demographic, right? A newer, younger, more tech-focused demographic.

7:43People, Silicon Valley billionaires amongst them. And I think that's why you look across sort of like your crypto millionaires and all the people that are out there who are buying luxury vehicles. Ferrari is not very well represented amongst that group. You get a lot of Lamborghinis. You get a lot of Porsche, Bugatti. You don't see a lot of Ferrari. I think Ferrari is trying to maybe branch out a little bit and bring in some new buyers. And I think that that's why this electric vehicle is coming out today. Did it speak to the traditional Ferrari owners or do they not even engage with, I don't know, internet discourse so we don't even know?

8:20I would imagine most of them are not engaging. I didn't see a lot of reactions from current Ferrari owners. I think it was mostly just sort of like, you know. Because if you walk into the chat and you're like, I own three Ferraris, people just start throwing tomatoes at you? probably the pitchforks get pulled out at that point. So yeah, I mean, that is sort of like the grain of salt that you need to take all of this with, right? Is that it's a lot of people who will never own a Ferrari, don't ever have the means in which to own a Ferrari, and are just sort of commenting, right? But I think that says something, right?

8:55That Ferrari is that type of brand that has that kind of global recognition and reputation. So I do think that that is sort of why Ferrari stepped on so many toes with this EV, because it is so far outside that kind of like very insular world. What do you think about it? We've heard what the haters think. We haven't really heard what the Ferrari lovers think. What do you think about it? Andrew Hawkins, writer about automotive industry for The Verge. You're asking me to put my feeble reputation on the line here, Sean. Yes. I actually kind of liked it, to be quite honest. I was not, I mean, like, I thought the exterior design was pretty meh.

9:37Keep in mind, I did not see it in person. The unveiling event took place in Rome, and Ferrari paid to fly out all these influencers and people to come out for the actual event. Welcome to Ferrari Luce. Okay. I genuinely, I don't know what to say. We've got the Ferrari Luce, the first ever electric Ferrari. At The Verge, we have a very strict ethics policy. We do not accept paid travel from any company that we cover. So I was not able to go to this event. I thought the exterior was not like, it didn't like, you know, offend me really, but I thought it was kind of boring. But yeah, again, the interior was really, I thought, really impressive.

10:17But again, We'll have to wait and see because nobody's gotten behind the wheel yet. No one knows much more about this car because only an elite few have driven it. Although I did see the Pope behind the wheel, but I didn't see the Pope driving it. Is this the first four-door Ferrari? So we may have to wait until next year until we see, I don't know, some tech bro like blast past us on the highway in a Luce. But when that day comes, do you think people will be impressed? I think like it's a Ferrari, right? Ferraris will always draw attention. Like there's something about a Ferrari that's kind of like a museum object to a lot of people.

11:03You don't see them on the road as much as you see some other luxury brands. So that when you do see them, it tends to draw this interest and this level of excitement. it right so i do think that you know sort of in the same way that early on like seeing the tesla model 3 for example like turn people's heads in ways people are like what is that thing i think looks weird that's not doesn't look like your normal car yeah i think in a lot of ways this this luce will also do that if you see it what is that thing looks kind of weird that doesn't look like a normal car very much reminds me of the cyber truck which i believe my friend's wife was like, Nick, what is that garbage can?

11:41I still, my kids, every time they see one, they're like, look, ew! You know, they like, they hate it. They have like a visceral reaction to it. But there's another electric truck that we have to talk about. Oh, yes, indeed.

12:00The Slate truck pulls up to Today Explained after the break.

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14:43This is Today Explained. So this, to me, represents sort of like the dichotomy in the EV market today, right? So you've got, on the one hand, you've got your Ferrari Luce that is, you mentioned a$640 ,000 car that no one you will ever meet will probably buy this car. And then on the other hand, you've got this slate truck that is the most bare bones two-seater that you could possibly imagine. There's no radio. There's no touchscreen. There's no central screen inside the vehicle. There's no paint. They're so little, I'm like, is that legal? You even have to opt in to get power windows. Otherwise, they will just give you the rollie, right?

15:29I love the idea of an electric truck that has manual roll-em-down windows. That really just like, when I heard that, that blew my mind.

15:45The whole philosophy behind this, this is a new startup, right? They've got a lot of investment cash from like Jeff Bezos and some other people. And they're trying to like, you know, this is their first vehicle. And the theory behind it is that like, we'll make this thing as stripped down as we possibly can. Take out all the bells and whistles. You could say we took out everything that was in the car. People can, you know, sort of after the fact, they can add a bunch of stuff. You can select from over 100 accessories available individually or bundled to make the blank slate yours. They could turn it into like a small SUV by adding sort of like a back section to it if they want.

16:24They could add, you know, wrappings, so like decals. They can make it look however you can personalize it and make it look however you want it to look. Or you can just buy the stripped down bare bones version. And the idea being behind this that electric vehicles as they stand today, sort of Ferrari notwithstanding, you know, above the average cost of a new gas powered vehicle. So we need to bring this price down. How are we going to do that? Well, still the most expensive part about any electric vehicle is the battery. So in order to have a good battery while still, you know, having like a decent car, you need to sort of take out everything else.

16:59And that's sort of the philosophy behind the slate, which is that we'll sell you basically, you know, this is the absolutely stripped down version of a truck that you could possibly buy. That'll still get you to point A to point B. If you want to add some stuff on, you can. And that's how they're saying that they're going to sell this thing for under$30 ,000 when it eventually comes out at the end of this year. OK, so unlike the Luce, people responded well to the Slate truck. Why is it a truck? Why not a sedan, something more practical? Well, trucks are very popular in the U.S. They're amongst the most best-selling vehicles.

17:38Typically, the Ford F-150, for example, was the best-selling vehicle in America for a long time. But trucks are, you know, this is America. We love our trucks. We love our big trucks. This is not a big truck. This is a small truck. And a lot of people have been saying trucks have gotten too big. They've gotten far too big for their britches. They're oversized behemoths out on the road that are dangerous. They're dangerous to pedestrians that are out walking around. They don't offer enough safety protections. So maybe we need to come back to like more of a midsize or compact world of compact trucks.

18:13OK, so this reason to make a little truck seems based on market research. People want a truck and here's a very different truck that we can offer them. What about this decision to literally strip away every single feature, including the paint, including the power windows, including the radio? Like, is that based on any market research that people can just do without all their nifty features, especially in 2026? It's a real risky bet from Slate that people will respond to this. I think what it is, what they're trying to say is that maybe cars have become too bloated, right? We're starting to see pullback from too much convenience features.

18:57I hate that we are moving to cars having every control through the screen. You should not have to aim your tiny little pointer finger at a tiny little icon on a screen to try and change your music and switch over to maps right after. Nowadays, you got to swipe left, go up, scroll right, click this, touch that just to turn on, you know, your heated or your cooled seats. And especially in the car market, with people feeling a lot of pressure on their pocketbooks from rising gas prices and just inflation in general and how expensive new cars have become. Prices are soaring at gas stations and at the dealership.

19:36New vehicles are going for an average of$50 ,000. Today versus pre-pandemic, the average transaction price for a new vehicle has gone up around 30 percent. Buying a new car was a milestone, but now for many Americans, it's starting to look more like a luxury. That is an enormous premium over where it's been traditionally for many years. So I think people are feeling real strapped for cash these days, and they're looking for something that is a little bit more down market on one hand. But also, I think it's a reflection of where the expenses are in building a new car and the realization that you can't just put out a car, especially an electric vehicle today, without some plan to make it profitable.

20:19One of the original mistakes of the auto industry, and especially the American auto industry, was that they could take a lot of their most popular cars, retrofit them to be electric, and that people would respond to them. That was, I think, a pretty understandable bet from a lot of these companies, but I don't think they were really taking costs into effect for a lot of that. And what we ended up with was a lot of cars that were indistinguishable from their gas counterparts that just had electric batteries, but were 20 % to 30 % more expensive than those gas cars. So I think that the fact that the battery still remains the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, there's hopes that that will come down over time, especially as we start to localize the supply chain more in America.

21:05China has traditionally exerted a lot of control over the EV supply chain, especially around batteries. and there's a hope that we can sort of lessen the control that China has and sort of have that spread out a little bit more so that those costs can come down for some of these companies. But I think there's an understanding that, you know, if that is the sort of the primary cost driver in building a new electric vehicle, that battery, we need to get rid of everything else so that we can still keep this thing at a price that is below$30 ,000, especially without any of the incentives or the policies that have been in place that Trump has gotten rid of over the last few years.

21:46Like, there's not going to be a tax credit. There's not going to be any emissions regulations. The Trump administration announced the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history this week, eliminating federal vehicle emissions standards and claiming it will save Americans trillions. But environmental advocates say the costs could be much higher. And for automakers, it means removing a stable, predictable regulatory framework that has allowed automakers to invest, to innovate, and to compete globally. But I mean, like in so many ways, automotive, especially our automotive industry, is a stand-in for our whole economy, right?

22:21And we sort of hold up the auto industry as being sort of this kind of beacon for which represents our innovativeness, you know, sort of our leadership on the global stage. And I think that we've ceded that leadership now to China. China is now leading, they sell the most cars, they export the most cars, and they have the best technology. They've cracked the code on cheap EVs. A modern-day behemoth of design and manufacturing. It produces more EVs than every other nation on Earth combined. He's trading in his Lexus for a BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams. It's a Chinese car company you won't really find in the U.S., but which overtook Tesla last year as the world's top seller of fully electric vehicles.

23:09It's next to nothing for them to put out a very good electric car that's, you know, is like$9 ,000,$10 ,000 U.S. I think the ship has sailed in some respects. I feel like America is always going to have like an outsized reputation. But whether that reputation is actually earned anymore, I think is a very open question right now. Where are the people, though, Andrew? Do the people want EVs in this country yet or do they still have range anxiety and a preference for the combustion engine? Does the war in Iran factor into how the people feel right now? Yeah, I mean, that has always been the case, right?

23:50People vote with their pocketbooks. That's where their preferences are today. And I think when electric vehicles were first gaining popularity, you heard a lot about charging anxiety. You heard a lot about range anxiety. I finally ran out of charge with my electric car. I can't stop shaking right now. Fun little fact about the EV world. Want to know what happens when you run out of electricity? Easy. You just call a diesel tow truck to come get you to tow you to the charging station. And that includes Tesla. Seven mile range. charge immediately. I'm sweating bullets. I won't be home for another like seven minutes.

24:26Oh God. I think those are still considerations, but I feel right now the number one consideration for most people is, you know, I'm living paycheck to paycheck and, you know, it's costing me $80,$90 to fill up my F-150. The used EV market right now is extremely attractive to a lot of people. You can get a very good electric vehicle for around$20 ,000. You take it home, you set up a home charger, you charge that thing overnight. You never have to go to a gas station again. That's a pretty attractive proposition to a lot of people.