Yahoo Autos Ferrari LaFerrari Replacement Expected to Be V-12–Powered
Ferrari’s replacement for the vaunted LaFerrari won’t arrive until after 2022, and not to worry, it should likely pack an even more sizzling version of the V-12 hybrid powertrain.
At an investor meeting this week in Maranello, chief marketing officer Enrico Galliera said Ferrari is developing the next hypercar using part of a $4.2 billion budget earmarked between now and 2022. While that car will continue to be the "apex of performance and technological innovation" in the vein of the 950-hp LaFerrari-the fastest Ferrari C/D has ever tested in our 63 years-it's unlikely to pack a pure electric powertrain. CEO Louis Camillieri said that Ferrari is considering electric drive for its future product but is more insistent on a broad, company-wide shift to hybrids and plug-in hybrids that eventually will make up 60 percent of its lineup by 2022. During the meeting, Ferrari presented a slide entitled "Ferrari Music" showing a line graph of the exact tonal curves its engines produce from bass to tenor to soprano. That should be enough of a clue.
Because Ferrari is still a low-volume manufacturer, it has greater leeway than major automakers to continue refining large-displacement engines like its 6.5-liter V-12 and keep them in compliance with tightening emissions standards. Ferrari sold approximately 8400 cars worldwide in 2017. Once Maranello tops 10,000, a threshold that will no longer exempt it from the latest regulations in many markets, the engineering challenge to retain these classic engines will be much tougher.
But executives promised the V-12 will at least remain in production through 2022, if not longer, along with a "significant increase" in average retail prices for all of its cars over the next five years. More expensive Ferraris than now? Anyone could have predicted that.
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