Ferrari says it will continue to invest in all different types of engine technologies as it seeks to broaden its appeal at a time of a fundamental transformation for the automotive industry toward electrification.
The company’s head of product marketing, Pietro Virgolin, told CarExpert that, despite the additional costs of maintaining so many different powertrain options, the company believes it’s the right way forward.
“As a company, we decided to invest in many, many engines and this is against the market,” Mr Virgolin told CarExpert.
“Because for sure we decided to invest in all engines, naturally aspirated, hybrid and also electric, this is much more expensive as a strategy for the company but this is the only way we think it’s possible to make every a car for a lot of happy customers in the Ferrari family.”
With current production limits of around 14-15,000 cars a year, the small-volume manufacturer has a significant number of current and new models on the way.
By 2026 the Italian carmaker plans to build up to 60 percent of its cars with hybrid and electric powertrains. This will foreshadow the brand’s first-ever full-electric vehicle that will be released in 2025 before the company becomes completely carbon neutral by 2030.
Nonetheless, despite the move toward electrification, Ferrari says the creation and improvement of non-electric internal-combustion powertrains will continue but will only make up 40 per cent of all sales by 2026.
By this date, estimations would suggest that five per cent of all Ferrari sales will be purely electric cars, 55 percent hybrids and 40 percent will remain traditional internal combustion engines.
Fast forward to 2030 and that mix will further skew toward electrification with pure internal combustion engines estimated to make up only 20 per cent of all sales.
“If you look over the last two decades, you would have seen quite an increase in the number of models we offer, that is because we have this philosophy of providing a Ferrari for every type of Ferrarista and occasion,” product communications head Joanne Marshall said of the company’s ever increasing model portfolio.
From now until 2026, Ferrari plans to launch 15 new cars, including a LaFerrari replacement hypercar that alongside the Icona series models will represent less than five per cent of all Ferrari sales.
Meanwhile, special series cars (like past models such as Speciale, Pista, 812 Competezione and likely new 296 and SF90 variants) will make up around 10 percent of total production output and the newly launched Purosangue will remain below 20 percent of total Ferrari output over its lifecycle.
CarExpert understands the company is also working on a new V12 power unit that will likely form the basis of a great deal of the internal combustion engine vehicles going forward. Whether this new engine will also be paired with hybrid technology remains to be seen.
The good news for car enthusiasts is that the scream of a brand new Ferrari should likely remain for at least another decade.
