It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that even the idea of an electric Ferrari was controversial. Indeed, it was 2016 when then-Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne said that, “with Ferrari, (an electric car) is almost an obscene concept,” before he finished up with, “you’d have to shoot me first.” Well, Sergio — times sure do change, don’t they? At least, that’s what a series of plans for an electric Ferrari from a leaked patent filing would seem to say about the matter!
In fairness to Marchionne, he would pass on before Ferrari built a pure electric car, succumbing as he did to cancer at the age of 66. Tragic as that was, what isn’t tragic is Ferrari joining the rest of the automotive universe in the 21st century with plans to build a for-real battery-powered Ferrari by 2025.
The push for Ferrari to finally go electric was, no doubt, accelerated by the success of the electric Porsche Taycan and, obviously, the rapid growth of Tesla (and, likely, the staggering growth of TSLA stock). With the launch of its first PHEV last year and recently announced plans to go “60% hybrid by 2022”, then, the step towards all-electric seems ready to happen.
Based on the filings, it seems like Ferrari’s first foray into electrics will mirror Porsche’s in another way, too. Rather than build an electric sportscar, like an electric Porsche 911 or battery-powered Ferrari 488, Ferrari seems to be planning an electric GT, with a traditional long hood, short deck design. Something along the lines of an electrified Ferrari 812 Superfast, maybe …
… and I say that because the line drawings around Figure 11 of the leaked European patent filings kinda sorta look like they’d lay over the 812 Superfast’s silhouette outline rather nicely, don’t you think?
As you might expect given the state of the art at Porsche and Tesla, the upcoming Ferrari EV will have multiple electric motors– as many as four, in fact. One for each wheel. The patent reads as if these could be operated independently, too. To quote the filing, “an electrically powered road vehicle comprising four drive wheels and four reversible electric machines, each of which is mechanically entirely independent of the other electric machines and has a shaft directly connected to a corresponding drive wheel.” That could mean that this Ferrari is capable of some crazy, Rivian-style tank turns and other wild cornering tricks — alas, that’s pure speculation at this point.
Check out the filings for yourself, below, then let us know what you think of the upcoming 2025 Ferrari EV in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Electric Ferrari Patent Filings
Source | Images: Porsche Taycan EV Forum, via Motor 1; Yahoo! News. Patents are public records.
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