Race-Car Maker Ferrari has revealed plans to make Electric cars and SUVs opening rivalry in the electric car making space with Tesla.
CEO Sergio Marchionne disclosed on Tuesday at the Detroit auto show that the automaker plans to build an electric supercar, according to a Bloomberg report.
Ferrari venturing into electric cars isn’t a complete surprise. Marchionne said in 2016 that all Ferraris would have some hybrid technology by 2019 and he said during an earnings call last May that the company was moving towards electrification.
“I think that there is now a view inside the house that electrification is a core skill that needs to be mastered and needs to be part of the offering of the combustion engine world,” Marchionne said.
Marchionne also said that the company plans to launch its first SUV by late 2019 or early 2020 and that the vehicle will be the fastest SUV on the market, according to the report.
“If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first,” Marchionne said. “People are amazed at what Tesla did with a supercar: I’m not trying to minimize what Elon did but I think it’s doable by all of us.”
“We do it because we have to do it,” Marchionne said. While there is work to be done, the new plan for Ferrari being released in the first half will include hybrid cars, he said, “so going from there to an electric is easy.”
Marchionne’s strategy plan will be his final one at the helm of the iconic Italian brand. Ferrari is targeting annual sales exceeding a self-imposed 10,000-car limit that until now has enabled it to operate under less-stringent fuel-economy rules, people familiar with the matter said in August. The goals include doubling operating profit to about 2 billion euros ($2.35 billion) by 2022, the people said then.
