Ferrari’s First EV Will Be A Quad-Motor 1,000-Plus HP Monster Called The Elettrica

Rumors about Ferrari’s first electric vehicle have been swirling for years at this point, but now we’re finally getting a more concrete look at everything about the car… other than how it looks. The Italian supercar maker isn’t quite ready to take the wraps off its first EV, the Elettrica, just yet, but it is ready to show off a production-ready chassis, suspension, battery system, and quad motor setup. There’s a lot to talk about here, and we’ve got no idea what this thing will look like other than the fact it’ll have four doors, a 116.5-inch wheelbase, and weigh just shy of 5,100 pounds.

Listen, I know that sounds really heavy (because it is), but I promise you, this thing will have enough oomph to make that weight disappear. It’s going to have four electric motors that were developed and are being assembled in-house, and they’re all fed through an 800-volt battery system. To help in the corners, the suspension system is going to be Ferrari’s third-generation active suspension that it co-developed with Multimatic. I’m not worried about the weight. I’m really not.

There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s dig in.

While your gas-powered Ferrari has to make do with one measly motor, the Elettrica gets four — two per axle — that can be independently controlled for some of the most precise torque vectoring you can conceive of. All four are permanent-magnet synchronous motors. The rears can spin at up to 25,500 rpm, and the slightly smaller fronts can spin at a time-bending 30,000 rpm.

With four motors, it’ll obviously be all-wheel drive, but the front motors can be disconnected with the simple flick of the e-Manettino switch on the steering wheel. It’ll also have three driving modes: Range, Tour, and Performance. They’ll determine how energy, power, and traction are managed, and the paddles behind the wheel will allow the driver to choose what level of torque and power delivery they want.

It’s not immediately clear how much power the Elettrica will put out, but Ferrari does say it will make “greater than 1000 CV.” That’s 986 horsepower for God-fearing Americans like you and me. Individually, the front motors can put out 282 hp and the rears combine for 831 hp, so the theoretical upper limit of hp is 1,113, but I don’t think the total system output of the Elettrica will be quite that high.

In any case, it won’t be a slouch. Ferrari says the Elettrica will hit 100 kmh from a dead stop in 2.5 seconds, so I’d say 0-60 will be dispatched in about 2.4 — that’s mighty quick for something that is carrying so much heft. If you feel brave and keep your foot in it, Ferrari says you’ll go all the way to a top speed of 193 mph.

Weight distribution won’t be perfect, but it’ll be damn close: 47% front, 53% rear.

Ferrari

All of this power comes courtesy of Ferrari’s in-house-built 122 kWh (gross) battery pack running at 800 volts nominally. It’ll be able to DC fast charge at 350 kW, and Ferrari says it can add about 70 kWh of charge in 15 minutes. Not too shabby, fellas. When it comes to range, Ferrari says it’ll be over 330 miles on the WLTP cycle. In the EPA’s more rigorous testing, I’d guess that number will fall somewhere around 280-290 miles. That’s not stellar, but it’s probably more than enough for your average Ferrari buyer.

Being an all-new car, the Elettrica gets an all-new suspension. Ferrari says it’s all aluminum, and up front it’s a multilink design with a pair of lower links and an upper wishbone. Out back, it’s also a multilink setup, and it has rear steer that can turn the two back wheels as much as 2.15 degrees in either direction.

As you may have expected, all four corners are fitted with carbon ceramic brakes. Up front, you’ll find six-piston calipers that clamp down on 15.4-inch rotors. Out back, we’ve got slightly smaller four-piston units with 14.6-inch rotors. That’s going to provide some serious stopping power, and it isn’t even getting into what the regenerative braking system can do.

I know I don’t have to tell you this, but one of Ferrari’s defining characteristics in all of its cars is the way they sound. The company knows it can never artificially replicate an internal combustion engine, so it’s not even going to try. Instead, it’s going to “highlight the unique attributes of the electric drivetrain.” It says the sound of the Elettrica isn’t digitally generated. Instead, it comes directly from its components thanks to a high-precision sensor installed on the rear axle that is meant to pick up the frequencies of the powertrain.

Those frequencies are then amplified and projected into the surroundings, similar to an electric guitar plugged into an amplifier. The electric axle sound travels through metal in the form of vibrations, and because of this, the sensor used is an accelerometer installed at a very rigid point on the inverter casing.

Ferraris have always been about a visceral connection between the car and the person behind the wheel. While I don’t really agree with the sentiment, one of the biggest complaints I see about EVs is people saying they feel soulless. While we’re still not sure what shape Ferrari’s EV will ultimately take, these facts and figures make me feel fairly confident that it’ll be able to win over even the most ardent EV skeptic.