Everyone Hated the Ferrari Luce. Then It Sold for $40 Million.

Ferrari’s first electric car did not exactly receive a warm welcome. When the Luce appeared, the internet had plenty to say. Its minimalist design was compared to an Apple product, critics questioned whether an electric five-seater belonged in the Ferrari universe at all, and even former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo publicly criticized the direction.

Then someone paid $40 million for one.

Ferrari Luce Chassis 0 sold at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction for $40 million, making it the most expensive new car ever sold at auction. The number is ridiculous enough on its own. It gets stranger when you put it next to another Ferrari.

In 2023, a 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO by Scaglietti sold for $51,705,000. That car had everything collectors normally pay millions for. It was raced by Scuderia Ferrari, competed at Le Mans, finished second overall at the Nürburgring 1000 KM and carried more than six decades of Ferrari history.

The Luce had been around for a few months. Yet only $11.7 million separates them. Of course, nobody suddenly decided that a normal Ferrari Luce is worth $40 million.

This was Chassis 0, the first production chassis of Ferrari’s first EV, finished in a unique Tailor Made specification. More importantly, the sale was for charity, with proceeds going to the Ferrari Foundation and RM Sotheby’s waiving its buyer’s premium.

So this is not really a $40 million comp for the next Luce. But it is still a $40 million sale. And maybe the controversy helped.

Collectors do not only buy beautiful things. They buy objects attached to moments, and the Luce represents one of the strangest moments in Ferrari’s history.

The 1962 GTO earned its story over more than 60 years. The Luce arrived with its story already happening around it.

Whether Ferrari’s first EV eventually becomes loved, forgotten or remains the weird electric Ferrari everyone argued about, Chassis 0 will always be the first.

Apparently, being hated doesn’t come cheap.