Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna says the automaker’s future electric vehicle will not be quiet like other EVs. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Italians are traditionally not quiet people. Growing up in New Jersey and living amongst them means I have first-hand knowledge of this fact. Vigna intends to carry the tradition forward.
Still, Benedetto Vigna assured folks who love a loud Ferrari howl that future electric vehicles that come out of Maranello will not be silent like other EVs on the road today, according to Business Insider. The Ferrari boss says his company is currently working on a prototype electric car that will be, well, loud.
Here’s more from Business Insider:
“Electric cars are not silent,” Vigna said during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday. “If you know the technology, you know you can do a lot of things also with electric cars,” he added.
[…]
He said the Italian company’s EV would maintain the same “unique” experience as its other vehicles, which are known for the rumble of its engines and run off traditional internal combustion engines.
When asked whether Ferrari will market its EV to the same consumers as Tesla, Vigna said he’d do it differently.
“When we talk about luxury cars like our cars, we are talking about the emotion that we are able to deliver to our client, so we are not talking about functional cars like other EVs that you see on the road,” the Ferrari CEO said.
Last year, Vigna said Ferrari plans to start delivering its first fully electric vehicle by the end of 2025, according to BI. We’ll see where those plans end up.
Now, Ferrari is not exactly reinventing the wheel when it comes to building an EV that makes some noise. Hyundai is doing it with its upcoming Ioniq 5 N. Hell, it’s even got a fake manual transmission mode. Dodge is also doing it with its Charger Daytona’s Fratzog system which is supposed to mimic V8-ish noises. It does this to varying degrees of success. BMW has also added some noise — with the help of Hans Zimmer — to its more powerful EVs.
Silent EVs are fine for 99 percent of the buying public, but noise is a hard thing to replace for enthusiasts who are making the jump to EVs. Perhaps this sort of stuff will help in the transition.
