Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has said the Ferrari SUV could be ready by 2019 – and claimed it will be the fastest vehicle of its type.
The colourful CEO initially indicated his intention to build an SUV – or FUV (Ferrari Utility Vehicle) in November 2017 and has since seen Lamborghini enter the market by launching the Urus.
• Detroit Motor Show 2018 news
At the Detroit Motor Show, Marchionne went on the record again about his plans. Dismissing suggestions the brand would build a truck, he stated: “It will look like whatever a Ferrari utility vehicle needs to look like”. “But it has to drive like a Ferrari.”
As you would expect, it will be devastatingly quick. Asked by Auto Express if he aimed to build the fastest SUV in the world, Marchionne responded: “So far the fastest SUV belongs to Alfa [the Stelvio Quadrifoglio] and I don’t think Ferrari fears Alfa”. “It will do its best to build the fastest SUV.”
The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio lays down a tough benchmark in the performance SUV class with its 503bhp twin-turbo V6 rendering it capable of 0-62mph in 3.8s and a 176mph top speed. By the time the Ferrari SUV arrives, however, Lamborghini Urus will be on the streets with its 641bhp twin-turbo V8 yielding claimed performance of 3.6s and 189mph – that’s likely to be the Ferrari’s real target, whether it likes to admit it or not.
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We also learned that the car will be ready much sooner than predicted. When asked by Auto Express, when it would hit the market, Marchionne responded: “Probably by the end of [20]19, the beginning of [20]20. I’ve seen the car when I was in Europe eight days ago. So we are working on the vehicle but it’s not finished”. “They’re just mock up bodies just now. But it looks good.”
The plan has outraged some Ferrari purists, but with FCA striving to become profitable there appears to be solid business logic behind the plan to follow Ferrari’s rivals into the SUV segment. Marchionne claimed the company will be debt free in 2018, despite missing sales targets – an SUV wearing the badge of his most coveted brand seems inevitable.
However, he acknowledged the sensitivities surrounding the project and admitted: “There would be enough people even outside Ferrari who would go for me if I did ‘just a utility vehicle’.”
With Bentley and Lamborghini entering the SUV market in recent years, and Rolls-Royce about to with the Cullinan, Ferrari is the last of the high-performance or super-luxury makers to commit to this area of the market.
Ferrari’s path to accepting the SUV
Towards the latter stages of 2017, Marchionne confirmed that there was strong possibility of an SUV bearing the prancing horse badge in the next few years.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, confirmed that it is “dead serious” about producing a Ferrari SUV, while also rubbishing rumours that FCA will part ways with SUV subsidiary Jeep.
Referring to the vehicle as the ‘FUV’ (Ferrari Utility Vehicle), Marchionne, 65, had previously played down the rumours of a Ferrari crossover, but then said Ferrari would take about 30 months to consider production of the vehicle. He said: “We need to learn how to master this whole new relationship between exclusivity and scarcity of product, then we’re going to balance this desire to grow with a widening of the product portfolio.”
Sources cited by the Bloomberg news agency suggested that the ‘Ferrari Utility Vehicle’ could form part of a new five-year-plan designed to boost sales beyond Ferrari’s current self-imposed limit of 10,000 cars per year.
The firm primarily keeps to this limit to stay on the correct side of emissions rulings in some markets, though it ensures a level of exclusivity for the brand too.
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Having previously strongly denied that Ferrari would ever venture into the SUV segment, Marchionne reiterated that Ferrari would not be creating an SUV in the mould of those offered by other manufacturers and that “you have to shoot me first” if it did. “It has not been done to compete with Porsche” he said, referencing the German brand’s hugely profitable move into the SUV sector with its Cayenne.
It’s understood that further hybridisation of the Ferrari range is also under consideration, to ensure it can continue to grow sales without breaking emissions rules.
Bloomberg reported that we could get our first official inkling of the brand’s long term plan sometime in 2018. Should Ferrari decide to go down the SUV avenue, it will be among the final acts of Marchionne, who will step down as boss of the Fiat Chrysler Group in 2019, followed by bowing out of Ferrari in 2021.
Bloomberg sources said an SUV act as a “four-seat family car that offers more space than Ferrari’s current two-door GT4CLusso”, and would be centred mainly around Asian markets, with Chinese customers in Ferrari’s marketing crosshairs.
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