Radical – Engine Icon https://engineicon.com Latest car news and advice blog Tue, 14 Jul 2026 02:07:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://engineicon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/cropped-ME_favicon-1-32x32.png Radical – Engine Icon https://engineicon.com 32 32 iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce https://engineicon.com/iphone-moment-for-ferrari-jony-ive-designs-the-radical-new-all-electric-luce/ Tue, 26 May 2026 07:15:58 +0000 https://engineicon.com/iphone-moment-for-ferrari-jony-ive-designs-the-radical-new-all-electric-luce/

The famous Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari has officially entered the electric vehicle market. The company revealed its very first battery-powered production vehicle, the Ferrari Luce, at a launch event in Rome. The new model arrives as a five-door hatchback sedan that offers five seats – a layout that challenges traditional definitions of a Ferrari.

To create the vehicle, Ferrari collaborated with LoveFrom, an independent design firm led by Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson. This is the first time that Jony Ive, best known for designing iconic consumer electronics like the original Apple iPhone, has styled an automobile. The creative partnership introduces an entirely new look to the brand, blending a minimalist design language with complex packaging solutions required by modern EVs.

iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce

The physical dimensions make the Ferrari Luce the largest vehicle the company has ever built. It measures 197.9 inches in length, 78.7 inches in width, and 60.8 inches in height. The wheelbase stretches 116.6 inches. Compared to the Ferrari Purosangue, the Luce is 2.09 inches longer and 1.77 inches lower. The exterior look separates the body into two clear parts: a dark, glassy upper section that sits inside a painted lower shell. Staggered wheels complete the stance, measuring 23 inches at the front and 24 inches at the rear.

Aerodynamic efficiency guided the development process to ensure maximum driving range. Engineers completed two and a half times more digital fluid dynamics calculations than they did for the Purosangue. The body features an integrated front S-duct that guides incoming airflow and shortens the visual appearance of the front nose. Floating front and rear spoilers allow air to glide cleanly between the body layers, while vertical windshield wipers sit tight against the edges of the front glass. These changes give the model the lowest drag coefficient of any road car from Maranello, reducing drag by 25 percent compared to the Amalfi model.

iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce

Inside the cabin, the styling team moved away from the digital trends that dominate many modern electric cars. Instead of replacing controls with giant touchscreens, the interior uses traditional physical touchpoints. Drivers interact with heavy, precision-machined aluminum dials, buttons, and switches to adjust basic cabin settings. The three-spoke steering wheel uses 100 percent recycled aluminum with an anodized finish. The instrument panel holds classic mechanical needles along with high-definition digital screens developed by Samsung.

The absence of a mechanical transmission tunnel creates a flat floor, allowing Ferrari to offer its first true five-seat cabin. Passengers access the rear compartment through large, rear-hinged suicide doors. The layout offers plenty of legroom, but the sloping roofline restricts vertical space. Passengers who stand over 180 centimeters or taller will likely touch the ceiling if they lean back against the headrests. Behind the rear seats, the vehicle provides a 21.1 ft³ trunk, which is the largest luggage space ever featured on a Ferrari.

iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce

The Luce is built on a custom 800V electric architecture. A 122 kWh battery pack integrates directly into the floorpan to lower the center of gravity by 3.74 inches compared to the Purosangue. Ferrari builds the 1,389 lb pack in-house using lithium-ion pouch cells developed with South Korean supplier SK On. The layout uses 15 modules, including a double-stack underneath the rear passenger seats. The electrical system supports direct-current fast charging up to 350 kW, which can add 70 kWh of energy in 20 minutes. A full charge provides an estimated range of 329 miles.

Four independent electric motors drive the car, giving each individual wheel its own power source. Together, they produce a total output of 830 kW – that’s 1,036 horsepower and 739 lb-ft of torque. The system sends most power to the rear axle, where two large motors make 416 horsepower each and spin up to 25,500 revolutions per minute. The front axle uses two smaller motors that contribute 141 horsepower each and spin up to 30,000 revolutions per minute. The front units automatically disconnect when the vehicle runs in its energy-saving Range mode.

iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce

The Luce accelerates from zero to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, and reaches 124 mph in 6.8 seconds. The maximum top speed is 193 mph. To control the 4,982 lb curb weight, the vehicle uses a double-wishbone suspension setup paired with 48-volt Multimatic TrueActive electronic dampers that eliminate the need for traditional mechanical anti-roll bars by adjusting rapidly to changing road surfaces.

Engineers introduced custom software controls to maintain high driver engagement. The steering column keeps its physical paddles, but instead of mimicking traditional gear changes, the left paddle adjusts regenerative braking across five stages – it can deliver up to 0.33g of stopping force when the driver lifts off the accelerator. The right paddle changes how the system distributes the electric power, giving the driver extra acceleration with each pull.

iPhone moment for Ferrari? Jony Ive designs the radical new all-electric Luce

To provide acoustic feedback, an accelerometer on the rear axle tracks the vibration of the electric motors and amplifies those real sounds into the cabin.

The Ferrari Luce arrives with a high price tag to match its advanced technology. It will cost £469,000 in mainland Europe, with an estimated price of GBP 440,000 for the UK market. Continental deliveries will begin early next year, and right-hand-drive versions will reach the United Kingdom in spring 2027. Ferrari keeps a strict factory cap of roughly 14,000 vehicles per year across its entire lineup, meaning the new model will be highly exclusive.

Source

Source link

]]>
Radical New 2027 Lexus IS Could Drop Gas For Good: Report https://engineicon.com/radical-new-2027-lexus-is-could-drop-gas-for-good-report/ Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:19:28 +0000 https://engineicon.com/radical-new-2027-lexus-is-could-drop-gas-for-good-report/

  • An all-electric Lexus IS sedan is reportedly coming sometime in 2027 to rival the BMW i3 and Mercedes C-Class EV.
  • The new IS EV will grow by three inches and feature radical styling and a super low-drag body.
  • This new rumor fits in with an older report claiming Lexus had pushed the launch of two new EVs to mid-2027.

Lexus is reportedly working on a radically redesigned IS sedan that will ditch combustion in favor of a pure-electric powertrain with big performance numbers and massive range. The most powerful variant will apparently have around 500 horsepower and it has a range target of 620 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge—this could indicate it’s getting a solid-state battery.

Nothing’s official right now, but Japan’s Best Car has been right before and it makes sense for Lexus to launch a performance electric sedan in the near future. It’s a segment that will soon be populated with models from rival automakers—the BMW i3 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class EQ—and it’s in Lexus’ DNA to try to compete with the Germans.

The report doesn’t go into too much detail, and it rehashes some bits of information we already knew, but it does mention the new electric IS will look a lot more futuristic than the new ES sedan—available with combustion and pure electric power—and will be around 3 inches longer than the current IS. It is said to feature giga-cast structural pieces, dual-motor all-wheel drive and be a full software-defined vehicle with over-the-air update capability.

We could see this new IS debut sometime in 2027, though without official confirmation, there’s also a chance we won’t. An older report from Australia’s Car Expert, published in December 2024, announced (citing unnamed insider sources) that Lexus had pushed back the launch of new EVs from 2026 to mid-2027, which aligns with the timeline presented in the Japanese report.

One of the delayed models was the production version of the highly aerodynamic LF-ZC concept, which fits the bill as being the next IS in terms of size and electric-only powertrain. Lexus is reportedly targeting a drag coefficient of under 0.20 Cd, which would make it among the most aerodynamic production cars, most of which are electric sedans.

If the new electric IS materializes as described in these reports, it will likely be pitched as a global model, one that could also reach the U.S. market as a larger and fancier alternative to the upcoming Toyota Corolla, which will also be reborn as a futuristic sedan with electric power and global ambitions.

Source link

]]>