Ferrari presented its first fully electric car to Pope Leo XIV (above) this week at Castel Gandolfo – perhaps to seek forgiveness for what it was about to unleash on the world?

Because the internet’s reaction to the new Ferrari Luce has been brutal.

Social media users have described it as everything from a "Fiat Multipla” to a “Lotus Eletre crossed with the old Fiat 20v Coupe”, while one particularly cutting commenter suggested that Xiaomi’s new YU7 looks “more like a traditional Ferrari than this Ferrari”. 

Another summed up the mood perfectly: “The problem isn’t a Ferrari EV. The problem is THAT Ferrari EV.”

And that feels like the crucial distinction here.

Because while there will always be a noisy minority who object to electric cars on principle, much of the backlash surrounding Ferrari’s £475,000 Luce has little to do with batteries or charging cables. 

Instead, it speaks to something far more emotionally complicated: the fear that, in trying to reinvent itself for the electric age, Ferrari may have stopped looking like Ferrari altogether.

As yet another commentator wryly observed: “Not even the Chinese will copy this one. If Ferrari’s goal was to make a car that no one would copy... success!”

The Luce is certainly unlike anything the Italian marque has produced before. Long admired for cars which looked sensual, dramatic and unapologetically emotional, Ferrari has instead delivered something much more severe and futuristic. 

The proportions are unfamiliar, the lines are sharper, and the overall effect feels more Cupertino than Maranello (much closer to where the target audience lives).

That perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise given the involvement of Sir Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief whose company LoveFrom worked on the project. There is undoubtedly something Apple-like about the Luce’s clean, minimalist approach. 

Interestingly, though, the interior avoids the giant touchscreen overload that has become almost mandatory in modern luxury cars. Instead, Ferrari has filled it with physical switches, buttons and theatrical details, as though quietly acknowledging that part of the challenge here is preserving some sense of occasion.

Because this is Ferrari’s impossible balancing act.

This is a company whose entire identity has been built around noise, engines and mechanical theatre, suddenly attempting to convince the world that silence can be just as emotional. 

Ferrari clearly knows traditionalists will be wobbling, which explains why – along with 1,050hp and a top speed of 193mph – the Luce has been engineered with artificial sound and simulated driving modes designed to recreate some of the old combustion drama. Unsurprisingly, that has gone down badly online too.

And while the reaction from the internet may be the loudest, the one from the financial markets is more worrying. Ferrari shares fell 8% on the Milan stock exchange following the reveal, before recovering slightly later in the day. 

Investors are unlikely to care whether social media thinks the Luce resembles a milk float with comfy seats or a Multipla – their concern is whether Ferrari can persuade buyers to spend nearly half a million pounds on a car that doesn’t look like a Ferrari.

Still, even as the internet melts down in a manner we haven’t really seen since Jaguar revealed its controversial rebrand and before that the Tesla Cybertruck, it’s important to remember there is something bigger happening here.

Because if even Ferrari now believes the future must include electric cars, then the entire industry has crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. The question is whether Ferrari buyers will eventually embrace the Luce in the same way they ultimately embraced the SUV many once claimed they never wanted.

Right now, the internet seems convinced Ferrari has lost its soul. But then again, the internet has been wrong about Ferrari before.