Ferrari Chairman says no to electric cars

This needs to be printed and posted on Chris Porritt's corkboard.

In Italy EVs are not so much appreciated for the time being. In my opinion when in future there will be more competition among EVs automakers the Ferrari Chairman will change his mind about electric cars.

When you make "work of art" engines, of course you will oppose something as radical as EVs
But give it time (and better battery tech) and Ferrari will follow.

ToddRLockwood said:

Ferrari Chairman says no to electric cars | The Verge

If Ferrari holds to this, in 30 years their cars will be the mechanical watches of the sports car world — quaint reminders of an era gone by.

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I really like my old Cyma watch better than any digital watch but cars are different (after Tesla I'd never want a mechanical car) - although the sound of a Ferrari is pretty 'nice' IMO

Zextraterrestrial said:

I really like my old Cyma watch better than any digital watch but cars are different (after Tesla I'd never want a mechanical car) - although the sound of a Ferrari is pretty 'nice' IMO

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Not to mention your watch would actually survive a giant EMP, where-as even an ICE nowadays wouldn't even stand a chance.

I see that as the main advantage to mechanical watches, that and they are so cool (much like guns) in their operation and intricacy. But despite that I am fairly certain I will always fall back on a Timex Ironman. It keeps better time, has a audible alarm, and has on-demand backlight. I can't deny that much function loss. Not to mention at ~$35-50 a watch I don't have to worry about ruining them.

Same goes for the car. You can't deny the extreme function and simplicity that goes into an EV. ICEs are going to become a relic, and niche product, sooner than people think.

It will no doubt be very embarrassing and come as quite a shock to them when an all electric SuperCar beats their biggest beast, on all performance metrics. I'd expect that to occur sooner than later, all types of EVs are being developed in the racing world. Wasn't Enzo also a bit of an ass, from what I've heard...

mitch672 said:

It will no doubt be very embarrassing and come as quite a shock to them when an all electric SuperCar beats their biggest beast, on all performance metrics. I'd expect that to occur sooner than later, all types of EVs are being developed in the racing world. Wasn't Enzo also a bit of an ass, from what I've heard...

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I think electric will easily exceed and equal supercars in pretty much every category, except one, very soon. Right now there just isn't away around total weight. And EV is going to be at least 1000 pounds heavier, making it much less 'tossable'. The only really other challenge is top speed, but I expect a much larger motor or a gearbox will be a quick fix for this problem.

ElSupreme said:

The only really other challenge is top speed, but I expect a much larger motor or a gearbox will be a quick fix for this problem.

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You don't need top speed also with a supercar. It's safer to have a car with big acceleration and normal top speed. Believe me. So from the point of view of safety an electric supercar is even better than an ICE supercar in my opinion.

Right now there just isn't away around total weight. And EV is going to be at least 1000 pounds heavier, making it much less 'tossable'.

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Correct right now. In 5 year time it may not be correct any more.
MetalAir at 1,5kWh/kg is EOL for ICE.

mitch672 said:

It will no doubt be very embarrassing and come as quite a shock to them when an all electric SuperCar beats their biggest beast, on all performance metrics. I'd expect that to occur sooner than later, all types of EVs are being developed in the racing world. Wasn't Enzo also a bit of an ass, from what I've heard...

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IIRC that's why Lamborghini started building cars. He was fed up w/ the pompousness of Ferrari and decided to build his own cars.

strider said:

IIRC that's why Lamborghini started building cars. He was fed up w/ the pompousness of Ferrari and decided to build his own cars.

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Yes, Ferrari insulted him, read the end of the first paragraph: Lamborghini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We were at a Model S delivery party last weekend where there were half a dozen Model S owners and a Ferrari owner with his car there. Perhaps everyone was asking for rides, or perhaps he was pushing his car on people, I don't know. All I know is that about every five minutes I heard the leaf-blower start up and race away, heard him for a long time speeding through the hills, would eventually calm to quiet and then he'd streak in and swap passengers. It felt like a lot of 'look at me', or rather 'listen to me'.

Beautiful, but noisy.

Dated a couple of those types, but preferred and married the elegant, demure type who never said 'look at me'. They didn't have to, you just did. (OK sort of OT, but you get the metaphor).

Back on-topic, I didn't take a ride, and more importantly, I didn't want to.

He may not be Ferrari's chair for long (read article for reference).

ToddRLockwood said:

Ferrari Chairman says no to electric cars | The Verge

If Ferrari holds to this, in 30 years their cars will be the mechanical watches of the sports car world — quaint reminders of an era gone by.

Click to expand...

Considering that we have 100 years of oil I doubt that.

mitch672 said:

It will no doubt be very embarrassing and come as quite a shock to them when an all electric SuperCar beats their biggest beast, on all performance metrics. I'd expect that to occur sooner than later, all types of EVs are being developed in the racing world. Wasn't Enzo also a bit of an ass, from what I've heard...

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Enzo built passenger cars to support his racing passion.

Steve Jobs was an ass too...

ElSupreme said:

I see that as the main advantage to mechanical watches, that and they are so cool (much like guns) in their operation and intricacy. But despite that I am fairly certain I will always fall back on a Timex Ironman. It keeps better time, has a audible alarm, and has on-demand backlight. I can't deny that much function loss. Not to mention at ~$35-50 a watch I don't have to worry about ruining them.

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I haven't worn a watch in years. The time always shows on the computer, cellphone, or car so a watch seems redundant. And these days the clocks in cars are reasonably accurate. (I do recall when automotive clocks were a joke, they never worked for more than a few weeks when the car was new.)

I am sure that the big shots who:
- made sailing ships scoffed at steam power
- made horse carriages scoffed at the first cars
- produced black and white movies scoffed at color

He is just another in a long line of old people who don't understand new technology.

Kaivball said:

Considering that we have 100 years of oil I doubt that.

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100 years of oil? That is not the position of the DOD, DOE, OPEC, or the IEF. I can't think of more authoritative (or diverse in interests) sources than those, but I would be happy to hear where you got that number.

Of course years of availability depends on consumption rates in addition to availability, and as oil gets more scarce consumption will drop. In any very real sense I don't think we will ever completely run out of oil; we will just stop using it as it gets more expensive than alternatives. But in the also real and commonly-used sense (and the way you seem to be using it), we are not going to be able to use oil the way we do today a few decades from now.