Ferrari’s new Jony Ive-Designed EV is covered in glass and aluminium

The focus on physical buttons, each with a unique purpose, is to allow the driver to keep his eyes on the road and away from the screen, Ive says. “When you look at this, you don’t wonder, ‘How many layers deep do I have to go to find something that will keep my butt warm?'” he said.

“Don’t touch anything but aluminium, glass or leather,” several Ferrari employees said several times during the event. (The only plastic pieces they had were a number of gears on the control panel.)

The result is a truly tangible experience. Everything feels clicky or sickly warped. It’s no surprise that the aluminum buttons have an incredible feel. The glass knobs were similarly smooth. We were particularly impressed with the air vents, which have aluminum shields that flip up when opened and closed. We fiddled with these things over and over until Ferrari came to tell us it was time to leave the room.

Familiar friends

Ferrari’s glass partner is Corning, the company whose Gorilla Glass is used in every car iPhone model. Corning says there are more than 40 glass parts in Luce’s car, including buttons, displays and even the center console housing and shift knob.

He described glass as an “honest material.” Compared to the standard plastic option, the glass certainly looks more premium as a knob or shifter. But will it collapse in an instant if it gets into a wreck? Hopefully that’s not the case, as Corning says its technicians conducted countless crash tests to make sure this version of Gorilla Glass is safe enough.

The steering wheel features the distinctive three-spoke design that Ferrari is famous for. It’s almost a circle but has a compressed bottom that gives the wheel a shape that evokes a dumpling (or a flat tire). The wheel features a leather grip all the way around, of course, but clickable aluminum buttons next to your fingers let you point or change music tracks and volume.

Behind the steering wheel is the pinnacle, the console where the odometer, speedometer and other indicators are placed. When captured on its own, the screen looks like a large iPhone in landscape mode with three Apple Watches in the middle. Convex lenses with a parallax effect magnify the circular OLED displays provided by Samsung, with which Ferrari has partnered for the display technology. Additional icons appear in the upper right corner to indicate things like road conditions.

Although the unit is dominated by displays, only very select bits are completely analogue. These are the speedometer and odometer needles and are made of aluminum and polycarbonate. When the car is off, the instrument displays darken and the needles appear to float in a black void. When the displays are turned on, they also light up the needles, making them glow.

control

To the right of the wheel is the control panel display, a rectangular screen with soft curved edges and almost no frame. In other words, in iPad form. However, the screen is mounted on a ball-and-socket joint and can therefore be moved in a way reminiscent of another relic from Ive’s period in Cupertino, iMac G4.