The first Ferrari Luce sold for $40mn, 36 times its estimate

The first production Ferrari Luce sold for $40mn at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction, setting records for the most expensive new car, electric car and charity car sold at public auction. Ferrari keeps none of the money and the car is not due for delivery until early 2027.

The first production Ferrari Luce has sold for $40mn. Chassis 0 went under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction at the weekend, setting records for the most expensive new car, the most expensive electric car and the most expensive charity car ever sold at public auction.

The estimate was $1.1mn. It went for roughly 36 times that, $14mn more than the one-off Daytona SP3 that topped the same sale last year, and enough to make it the sixth most expensive car ever auctioned.

Ferrari keeps none of it. The proceeds go to the Ferrari Foundation, which will put them towards educational programmes.

The buyer does not get the car either, because it does not exist. Chassis 0 returns to Maranello and is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2027, built to US standards, so a buyer outside the United States faces homologation costs on top of the price.

What they are getting is a specification nobody else can have. The paint is a Madraperla Semi-Gloss developed for this car alone, shifting from green to violet with the angle of the light, over dedicated wheels and brake calipers, with Le Mans metallic leather inside and grey rather than black secondary trim.

None of this settles the argument about the car. The Luce’s reveal knocked 7% off Ferrari’s stock as investors questioned the design and the strategy behind it.

The criticism came from inside the family too. Former chairman Luca di Montezemolo suggested the car should carry a different logo.

Somebody paid for that reception. Ferrari replaced its marketing chief a month after the launch.

The commercial answer had already arrived, and it was not this auction. The Luce quietly sold out despite everything said about it.

Which is the point worth holding onto. A charity lot for chassis number one is its own collectible category, as the petrol Daytona SP3 demonstrated at $26mn last year, so $40mn proves that people pay enormous sums for firsts rather than that they have warmed to electric Ferraris.