Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...By William Shaw, Bloomberg Ferrari’s first all-electric vehicle defied criticism to sell for $40 million, making it the most expensive new car ever sold at auction.
The Sotheby’s charity auction of the Luce “tailor-made” at Monterey Car Week in California broke a record posted last year, when Ferrari’s customized Daytona SP3 sold for $26 million, the carmaker said in a statement.
Ferrari in May unveiled the Luce, priced at €550,000 ($636,356) to a wave of criticism and a drop in the company’s share price. The vehicle marks a break from Ferrari’s heritage of combustion-engine sports cars.
“Tailor-made” cars are one-of-a-kind vehicles customized to a buyer’s precise specifications.
The car sold in Monterey, dubbed “Chassis Zero,” is the first production chassis from Ferrari’s Luce program. The car combines more than 1,000 horsepower with four doors. It features an iridescent finish that shifts from green to violet depending on angle and light.
The model was designed with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive, Apple’s former design chief and a key figure behind the iPhone and iMac.
Automotive website Motor1.com identified the buyer as Herbie Wertheim, a Florida-based billionaire inventor, investor and philanthropist known for early stakes in companies including Apple.
The full $40 million from the sale will benefit the Ferrari Foundation’s educational initiatives.
Ferrari’s Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna said in May that the model was getting orders from old and new customers.
“The Ferrari Luce has nothing to do with electric cars you have seen from other players,” he said at the time. “You have to see it and drive it to understand that it wasn’t copied — not the interiors, not the exterior, not the performance.”
Ferrari raised its full-year guidance late last month, as demand for limited-run models like the F80 and a more expensive version of its Purosangue four-seater drove higher second-quarter results.
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