Oh, Ferrari, what are you doing? A new video from outside the Prancing Horse’s Maranello factory shows employees at the Italian supercar manufacturer testing a Tesla Model S Plaid. We weren’t sure Ferrari had any plans to enter the electric sedan segment, so we were surprised to see the American luxury four-door in and around Ferrari’s inner sanctum.
While Ferrari has embraced electrification in the form of hybrid cars, which accounted for nearly half of the brand's sales last year, its first all-electric model won't arrive until 2025.
Maybe Ferrari is just getting a taste of what’s already on the market. Or maybe the company’s engineers are comparing Tesla to an upcoming PHEV system that will propel the car to 60 mph in two seconds before firing up the gas engine. We don’t know, but we hope Ferrari doesn’t pick up Tesla’s bad habits.
We know the automaker will launch three new cars in 2024, one of which could feature a twin-turbocharged V6 plug-in hybrid. The successor to the LaFerrari will reportedly use an engine derived from the 296 GTB. We’ll also see the debut of the 812 Superfast replacement, but it likely won’t be electrified and will stick with a naturally aspirated V12. The camouflage-covered prototypes you see throughout the video are likely a hint of what’s to come.
Ferrari may be focused on hybrids right now, but like the rest of the industry, it’s also looking into battery-powered vehicles. The Model S isn’t Tesla’s most popular model, but with over 1,000 horsepower in its most advanced configuration, any electric car from Ferrari would have to outperform the American four-door sedan from California.
