NO car in recent motoring history has polarised the public like the all-new Ferrari Luce.

It’s been compared to a vacuum cleaner, criticised as damaging the brand, and triggered a record one-day share price fall of 8.7 per cent.

So it’s not just another Ferrari.

It’s battery electric and a five-seater, both landmarks for the Italian supercar maker.

It will also have a price-tag of more than $1 million when deliveries begin in Australia in the back end of next year.

There is also an Australian connection to the car, as one of its designers – Marc Newson – was born in Australia and also served time as creative director at Qantas.

Ferrari claims impressive performance for the Luce, with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 2.5 seconds and a top speed of 310km/h, as it packs 722 kiloWatts of power and 990 Newton-metres of torque. The range is said to be 530 kilometres.

But it’s the androgynous styling which has triggered a tsunami of criticism. Without the badges it could be just another nameless Chinese battery box, although the cabin is nicely futuristic.

“If I were to say what I really think, I’d be doing Ferrari a disservice,” said Luca di Montezemolo, the former chairman who led Ferrari for longer than anyone after the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari.

“We risk destroying a legend and I’m truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the prancing horse (Ferrari’s historic logo) from that car.”

Then came the most cutting comment of all.

“This is surely a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy from us.”

Predictably, Ferrari responded with news that it was already receiving big-money deposits from future owners. And it emphasised that the company – like Jaguar, with its EV 01 – was looking for new owners, not the ageing collectors who have traditionally been won by performance with a howling engine note.

Luce is the Italian word for ‘light’ and the company is hoping to shine plenty on these youthful new fans. It comes after Ferrari’s successful move into the SUV world with its Purosangue, although it prefers to call it a ‘crossover’.

It’s a similar size to the Purosangue, although obviously considerably lower, but weighs a hefty 2260 kilograms despite its aluminium bodywork.

The shift in priorities comes as Ferrari recognises that its group of high-net-worth owners are likely to have one or more of its sports cars in the garage, but need something more pedestrian – and green – as a daily driver.

That has put an EV priority into development work for cities including London, which now charge heavy penalties for combustion cars that live or drive in the city centre.

“We are convinced that a company demonstrates its leadership when it has the courage to dare and to take on the challenge of new technologies,” said Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari.

“In line with our belief in technological neutrality, we are the first in the world to combine fully electric, hybrid and combustion engine architectures for sports cars. We have created a car that combines unique driving emotions with extraordinary performance, driving pleasure, and comfort for the Ferraristi of today and tomorrow”.

The Luce is a four-door car with a traditional sedan profile, but with clamshell doors made possible by having the battery as a structural element in the floor.

It has a 122 kiloWatt-hour battery pack and 12 electric motors, with three in each wheel to optimise grip and cornering balance.

The cabin design has been influenced by Apple, where Newson also worked, although it retains a traditional alloy steering wheel in the digital dashboard and has the usual leather covering for the seats.