Electric performance cars have proven to be a hard sell. Even Mate Rimac, who started a company that makes EV hypercars, thinks so, and that’s proving to be bad news for Ferrari. Reuters, citing anonymous sources, reports that Ferrari is delaying its second EV from 2026 to 2028, because right now, there’s evidently “zero” demand for such a car.
The Reuters story, which The Drive brought to our attention, says that Ferrari’s first EV will be a low-volume special model, and a “symbolic milestone model that will meet its promise to launch its first EV in 2026.” The second electric Ferrari, which was supposed to arrive by the end of next year, will be a higher-volume production car.
Ferrari sells around 5,000 to 6,000 examples of each regular-production model over a five-year run, but one of Reuters’ sources said that would be impossible with an EV arriving next year. There’s virtually no customer interest, so Ferrari is delaying the model until 2028 at the earliest.
This additional time also has the side benefit of allowing Ferrari to further develop its EV technology. We reported previously Ferrari has applied for patents on a virtual engine-and-transmission system for electric cars, not unlike what Hyundai has done successfully with the Ioniq 5 N. Still, one of Reuters’ sources said that the main reason for the delay is the demand issue, not anything having to do with the car itself.
Ferrari isn’t the only Italian performance-car brand to delay its electric performance car plans. As Reuters notes, Lamborghini pushed back the launch for its first EV from 2028 to 2029, and Maserati outright killed the electric MC20.
EV demand is slower than many automakers once anticipated, and regulatory pushes to end gas-car production have been either delayed or abandoned entirely. For Ferrari, a wait-and-see approach might not be such a bad thing, rather than committing to something it might not need to build after all. Or, customers might suddenly embrace performance EVs at a greater rate.