When the news broke last July that Ferrari had plans to build an SUV, the internet nearly suffered a meltdown. Ferrari enthusiasts went berserko, Lamborghini began praying its upcoming Urus would be good enough, and literally everyone else had an opinion (good and about) about the Prancing Horse's decision. And now we're hearing from a very brief, but interesting Autocar report that this Ferrari SUV project may still be unofficial. In fact, is it still happening at all?
Despite everything CEO Sergio Marchionne has hinted at, such as this "Ferrari Utility Vehicle," or FUV being a "five-door, high-riding coupe with suicide doors and no B-pillar, other top executives at Maranello don't seem to be too enthusiastic about the FUV. During Ferrari's press conference at Frankfurt last month, tech chief Michael Leiters stated, when questioned about the FUV, that "We have many projects, many concepts, but there is no program and nothing has been confirmed." No program? Nothing confirmed? What's happening here? Autocar also noted that when the group of top Ferrari execs was asked about the upcoming FUV, there was a "collective groan." So, what does this mean?
One, not everybody at Ferrari HQ is on board with the project for whatever reason. Second, these guys simply didn't want to talk about it because they had no more information to provide. Or, Ferrari could be in the process of changing its mind about the project. But here's what we think: the FUV's overall parameters still haven't been decided, and there's more internal debate than usual about what they should ultimately be. For example, should it feature a hybrid boost powertrain? A ride height similar to that of the Urus or only a tad taller than the GTC4Lusso? Ferrari has a lot riding on this project, its reputation for starters.
But Ferrari has proven time and again that it knows what it's doing, and is not afraid of taking chances. Just look at the FF. Ferrari still has some time to figure things out because the FUV isn't scheduled to launch until 2021, assuming the project is still a go.
