Check Out the Ferrari Luce EV’s Interior Tech: Turning Glass, Light, and Aluminum Into Art

The fully electric Ferrari Luce (pronounced “LOO-chay”) is poised to blaze a lot of new trails for the Italian carmaker, and its interior will establish more than a few technological precedents for the auto industry at large. From old-school metalworking techniques to bold new applications of Gorilla Glass to innovations in display screen and needle technologies, here’s how Ferrari’s Luce will set the pace.

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Aluminum Parts

Naturally, everything in the Luce interior that looks like aluminum is aluminum, but none of it is cast. It’s all milled from billet, because this process accepts anodizing better than cast parts do and hence ensures finish uniformity. And when we asked whether the large area removed from, say, the middle of the infotainment screen frame could be used to mill the steering wheel’s twin manettino pads (to each of which is assembled 30-plus parts), we were told, “Nope. It’s all recycled.” The monolithic aluminum steering wheel hub alone requires four hours of machining.

Strength of 40 Gorillas

Producing the 40 Corning glass pieces used across the Luce’s interior required development of seven new processes (no doubt accounting for at least as many of the 100 claimed patents obtained for the Luce). The glass itself is a further development of the company’s Gorilla Glass (an alkali-aluminosilicate used in iPhone screens and Wrangler/Gladiator replacement windshields) strengthened with potassium ions in a 750-degree salt bath. Oh, and Ferrari calculated the mass impact of making these parts in glass (which is denser, but also strong enough to be made thinner): The glass adds just 22 pounds.

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Ignition off, key yellow, shifter gray.

Glass Shift Knob

Most Gorilla Glass applications are basically flat or curved to a simple shape. Not the shift knob. To maintain the desired optical clarity, Corning begins with the whitest sand imaginable and then melts all ingredients at 2,700-plus degrees Fahrenheit. The purity and high temperature result in glass with no defects larger than 200 microns (two human hair-widths) and with 92 percent light transmissibility (the rest is reflected away). Then, to ensure uniformity of the light illuminating it (as the yellow color “drains out of the key” upon startup), a uniform black ink is applied inside, and then 13,000 40-micron-diameter (± 2µ) holes are laser drilled through it.

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Ignition on, key depressed and gray, shifter white.

Key Fob

That color-change magic from yellow to dark gray/black leverages the same e-ink technology that forms the black type on a white background of your Kindle e-reader. Just a tiny amount of energy is needed to transition from black to white or back again, after which it requires no energy to hold its state. Where Corning struggled was in formulating a filter tint to produce the precise bright yellow color (HEX #FFF200). Oh, and the cavallino itself? It’s black chrome applied via physical vapor deposition, then photo-etched using semiconductor-chip-making light technology. Corning performed extensive drop testing of the fob on concrete. When failures occurred, the team altered the machining and gluing processes to eliminate stress areas.

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The matte area is fingerprint-proof and scratch-proof etched glass. Gloss areas around the key and shifter are similarly scratch resistant.

Matte/Gloss Console

The glass surrounding the Luce’s key and shifter features a novel new matte finish, wherein the glass is etched with a texture designed to resemble the light-scattering a fingerprint creates, helping disguise real fingerprints in high-touch areas. Gloss surrounds the key and shifter, and the whole piece gets an easy-to-clean (ETC) oleophobic/hydrophobic coating to repel finger oils and sweat. It’s also incredibly scratch resistant: Corning reps gave us a house key, asking us to try to scratch the glass. The brass-colored scar wiped right off. THIS is “piano black” done right (when cost is no object). At CES 2026, we saw Corning samples of this type of glass finished in various textures and formed into far more complex shapes, so stay tuned.

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Parabolic lenses have anti-reflective coatings on both sides, and enhance the sense of depth of the gauges on the lower screen.

Gauge Lenses

The three main instrument dials are recessed behind glass lenses that introduce the potential for reflection—of the instruments on the glass and things in the cabin on the front of the glass. Corning developed processes borrowed from its semiconductor lens clients for applying anti-reflective coatings on both sides of these gauge lenses.

Three OLED Displays

Organic light-emitting-diode displays represent the pinnacle of display brightness and resolution. Relative to mini-LED, they’re also lighter, thinner (five layers versus 10), and more efficient (thanks to targeted versus “always on” lighting). Resolution is 200 pixels per inch (phones are typically 300–400, but they’re viewed closer up) and luminance is 1,000 nits (candelas per square meter)—plenty bright for use in sunny areas.

Two displays comprise the main instrument binnacle. The top one, measuring 12.86 inches, is used primarily for warning lights and occasional displays of turn-by-turn navigation and the like. Supplier Samsung innovated the circuitry to allow all pixels to be addressable with three big holes cut into the display. Visible through these holes is a 12.04-inch screen. Also note that none of these screens are purely rectangular.

The physical speedometer needle is etched onto a clear disc and edge-lit by 15 white LEDs as it sweeps 360 degrees, powered by an edge-driven motor.

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Infotainment Screen Multi-Meter

The 10.12-inch infotainment display, mounted on a ball swivel to facilitate passenger use, also features a hole, through which the clock’s physical hands protrude. An intricate clockwork of seven plastic and metal gears is able to spin the hour, minute, and sweep-second hands independently, allowing it to serve as a simple clock, a chronometer stopwatch, or a compass.