Ferrari's new plant dedicated to manufacturing electric supercars and next-generation electric motors, inverters, and batteries will be completed from the middle of 2024, the company's CEO Benedetto Vigna announced.
The site in Maranello, northern Italy, "will be ready in June 2024," two years after construction started, the chief executive said in a June 5 interview at Bloomberg's Italy Capital Markets Forum.
Described as an "e-building," the facility will have flexible assembly lines that will allow Ferrari to build both electric and non-electric cars, Vigna added. "We want to retain great flexibility," he noted.
"It will be ready exactly two years after our capital market day, when the site construction was started," Vigna said about the plant.
While Ferrari's first all-electric vehicle won't arrive until the fourth quarter of 2025 – volume production will start in 2026 – the CEO said he's confident the company will be able to benefit from the same generous profit margins on BEVs that it currently enjoys on internal combustion engine-powered cars.
Gallery: Electric Ferrari Patent Documents
Vigna said he doesn't expect to see margins fall with new EV models, which is an interesting statement considering that most legacy automakers are struggling to turn up profits on their all-electric models.
Of course, Ferrari is in a different league when it comes to pricing than most automakers, so the high prices of its upcoming EVs will probably play a big part in ensuring profitability. It will be interesting to see how Ferrari will be able to do that, though, seeing as the transition from gas vehicle production to EVs can be expensive without a proper supply chain in place.
Ferrari had an operating profit margin of almost 27 percent in the first quarter of 2023, one of the highest in the industry. Needless to say, achieving a similar margin on BEVs would be a major achievement.
Another interesting statement Vigna made is that Ferrari is not interested in buying other supercar brands. "I don't think it makes sense for us to buy other supercar makers," he said, adding that it's important for a luxury brand to retain its DNA. Ferrari will continue to focus on partnerships with other companies, though.
Last year, Ferrari said it will adopt a three-pronged approach in developing new vehicles, with electric cars and hybrids expected to make up an increasing proportion of its lineup by the end of the decade: 40 percent BEVs, 40 percent hybrids, and 20 percent ICEs.
Read more about Ferrari's electrification plans
Source: Bloomberg