Ferrari to make electric supercar

Ferrari plans to build an all-electric supercar to compete with Tesla. That says Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of the Italian car brand, at the Detroit Auto Show.

“If there is going to be an electric supercar, Ferrari will be the first,” Marchionne told Bloomberg. According to the Ferrari CEO, people are amazed at what Tesla has achieved, but he says that this is “doable for all of us”. He is probably referring to the new Tesla Roadster, the fastest model of Elon Musk’s car company, and by ‘us’ he seems to be referring to traditional car brands.

With his statement, Marchionne seems to indicate that the electric supercar will be on the market before 2020, before the new Tesla Roadster appears. Tesla unveiled that model in November last year. Elon Musk’s supercar accelerates from standstill to 100 km/h in 1.9 seconds and the top speed is said to be more than 400 km/h. The model can be pre-ordered for 215,000 euros.

Before Ferrari comes up with a fully electric model, the brand will make hybrids. “From there, the step to an electric model is easy,” says Marchionne. Ferrari has focused on replacing V12 engines with turbocharged V8 variants in recent years, but has not yet ventured into full-fledged hybrids or electric models.

Competitor Porsche, among others, has been working on an electric supercar for some time: the Mission E. Renault showed a concept of an electric supermodel in 2016: the Trezor. The Chinese NIO managed to break the lap record on the Nürburgring with its electric EP9.

Tesla’s new Roadster, the model Ferrari wants to compete with