Jony Ive Applies Timeless Style to the Cockpit of the New Ferrari Luce

What will an electric Ferrari be like? How should the Ferrari of EVs look, feel, and sound? We learned about its technology in October, and now the company has revealed its name: Luce. That’s “light” or “illumination” in Italian, and we just got our first sense of how it will feel—at least to the hands and eyes of its drivers. This all happened in San Francisco, where we paid a visit to LoveFrom, the boutique design atelier that’s been helping to ideate and curate the first Ferrari to completely eschew internal combustion.

Who Is LoveFrom?

Chances are you’ve never heard of LoveFrom. The firm was cofounded in 2019 by Sir Jony Ive, who spent 30 years as Apple’s Chief Design Officer, and renowned industrial designer Marc Newson, who, despite being an avid car guy, only has one car on his design resume—the 1999 Ford 021C. The two worked together designing the Apple watch. Neither of these guys needs to work, they founded LoveFrom so they could do what they love.

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Jony Ive, second from the right in blue suit.

“Who I work with is more important than what I work on,” Ive said during the event we attended introducing what he and his team have developed for the new Luce’s interior styling. As such, LoveFrom is not a consultancy per se, rather, it’s an atelier with a tiny client list that places heavy emphasis on craft, culture, and legacy, without promoting themselves.

What is LoveFrom’s Design Aesthetic?

LoveFrom’s creations have typically been paragons of clean design that emphasize timeless form and are made of quality materials made to endure. An example of a limited edition LoveFrom product you can buy: The Sailing Lantern. Designed for Japanese brand Balmuda, it’s priced around $4,800.

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Why Is Ferrari Engaging LoveFrom?

The first fully electric Ferrari marks a significant inflection point in the famed Italian automaker’s history. It’s emotionally risky and culturally sensitive, and it invites philosophical questions: What does driving pleasure mean without an engine? How does Ferrari convey its emotional identity when the sensory cues change?

And Ferrari—a brand building cultural artifacts, not merely “transportation,” has the confidence to ask like-minded experts who’ve never designed a car how they might answer the above questions. So, Ferrari bringing in LoveFrom is less about “outsourcing design” and more about “engaging a creative conscience.”

Let’s Get Phygital

The man who popularized the button-free touchscreen is averse to operating a car by screen. LoveFrom values physical/digital integration, intuitive controls that can be operated by touch alone, activated by knobs that serve as indicators. So, extra effort has been expended to make the Luce’s digital displays appear analog in nature, for example, by superimposing physical needles over digital dials.

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The main instrument cluster display consists of two OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays layered such that the top one—with three large holes cut in it—remains largely dark, displaying warning lights as necessary (it can also show turn-by-turn navigation and other occasional content). The holes are filled by anodized aluminum rings holding parabolic glass lenses that provide a parallax view of the three digital dials on the lower screen. In between these screen layers is a physical speedometer needle. This is how you generate a 3D effect when cost is no object.

Driver Instrument Cluster

The shape of the main instrument binnacle is somewhat reminiscent of an early 1960s Ferrari 250, and it mounts to the steering column, moving as it is adjusted for rake and reach. The larger middle gauge houses an analog speedometer with a digital readout at its center, and an analog battery meter in the bottom quarter. To the left is a gauge indicating power/regen percentages. To the right is a gauge showing one of seven different readouts (tire pressures, a g-circle, ADAS, tire pressures, etc.).

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Oh, and the typeface on all the dials is dubbed “LoveFrom Maranello,” and was inspired by that used on vintage Veglia and Jaeger instruments from the 1950s and ’60s. Gauge trace colors change to visually indicate drive mode (green for Dry, amber for Sport, blue for Wet, light blue for Ice, and red for ESC Off).

Steering Wheel

Ive owns a 250 Europa and felt passionate about reinterpreting its classic Nardi three-spoke design as a modern, flat-bottom, Ferrari multifunction wheel. So, the armature and spokes are milled from billet aluminum and leather-wrapped, with a super slim profile airbag at its center. Two small manettino switch pods are fitted with anodized aluminum knobs of unmistakably differing shapes with indicator pointers that allow the driver to operate them without looking.

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The test drivers report finding it all very practical in track use, and the switches look exquisite—especially the wiper switch, which includes a tiny glass lens that magnifies the set value (0, A, 1, 2). Aluminum turn signal buttons are inset in the spokes, and two large “shift paddles” will serve to increase regenerative braking (left), and boost torque (right). It looks vastly less busy than today’s wheels, while retaining most of the same functionality.

Infotainment Screen

This screen houses all secondary functions that a passenger might also access, which is made easier by its swivel mount. It includes five aluminum toggle switches to control driver and passenger seat heating/cooling and climate temperature, plus a shared fan switch.

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The handlebar used to swivel the display also forms a handy palm rest to help steady the hand while using the touchscreen. The top of the display is dedicated to performance readouts and a multi-function clock. Here again, there’s an anodized aluminum ring separating this feature, and a hole in the screen permits the use of physical needles. Two glass buttons at the top right frame of the display allow what looks like a traditional second-hand clock to also serve as a chronograph, compass, and the launch control meter. The gears and clockworks required to enable these three needles to operate independently are the envy of Rolex.

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Everything is designed as if for a high-end camera or watch, and—praise Enzo—there isn’t a capacitive switch to be found. Oh, and all these aluminum frames, surrounds, and armatures are milled from billet and anodized in a choice of silver, matte gray, or “warm gray” (a lighter rose gold).

Starting and Launch Mode

Starting the Ferrari Luce involves some real theater. Place the hefty rectangular glass and aluminum Cavallino Rampante logo key on its receiver and press it down to start the car. When the key becomes flush with the console surface, its yellow coloring appears to drain out of the key and flow into the glass shifter knob (thanks to e-ink in the key and LED backlighting through 13,000 laser-drilled holes in the shifter). Want to unleash all those cavallini at once? Reach overhead and pull down on the dramatic round aluminum Launch Control handle and follow the directions the screen graphics walk you through.

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That overhead console also houses the expected telematics call button as well as switches for head and fog lights and front and rear defrosters. The lower console also incorporates a pair of cupholders at the front, separate driver and passenger stowage cubbies, and rear-seat AC vents, plus a repeat of the performance meter, seat heat/cool and climate controls for the right and left passengers. The car’s AC vents are paragons of intuitive aiming: Just grab the cylindrical outlet and point it. Want it off? Give it a quarter twist right, and an aluminum puck closes tight. Together, they probably cost as much as a Camry’s compressor.

What Will It Look Like!?

Our San Fran sneak-peek was of the above elements suspended on chrome armatures that placed them in space where they’ll go in a car. There were no door cards or dashboard forms, nor any swatches to suggest options for upholstery, stitching, carpet and hard finishes. There were seats in traditionally stitched Ferrari cuoio tan leather, placed elsewhere, high enough to show off their milled-from-billet seat tracks.

Just know that the final design was 100 percent executed by the Ferrari Styling Centre, led by Ferrari’s design chief Flavio Manzoni, and we’re assured it was designed “as a single, clean volume, with forms simplified and rationalized in the service of driving, creating an environment that feels calm, focused and spacious.” All will be revealed this May but expect the LoveFrom influence to drive more matte and less gloss in the finishes, fewer decorative textures, and less overall visual contrast.

Expect it to look timeless. That’s what the team has spent five years struggling to achieve.