If we had a nickel for every time we heard someone from Ferrari say they won't build an SUV, we'd have almost enough money to actually buy one. Which would be great, because despite its insistence to the contrary, the rumors say that Maranello has just such a project in the works.
The latest comes from Autocar, which reports that, in contrast to the usual crossover styling, the design of the high-riding Prancing Horse will hide its rear doors, giving it a more coupe-like profile.
Codenamed F16X, the Ferrari Utility Vehicle (FUV) is likely to share much mechanically with the GTC4 Lusso, including its all-wheel drive system and either the twin-turbo V8 or naturally aspirated V12 engines, which produce 602 and 681 horsepower, respectively, in the GTC4. It'll also likely have a liftgate and four (or five) seats, but sit higher on the road, and potentially even integrate a hybrid powertrain.
So how will Ferrari get away with rolling out an SUV while insisting that it isn't? Simple: it'll just say it's not an SUV. Remember that when it was working on the California, company officials said up and down that they weren't working on an entry-level Ferrari. And then, lo and behold, an entry-level Ferrari rolled out. They just didn't call it that.
Whatever it's termed, the British publication predicts the model will cost around £250,000 (or a little more than the twelve-cylinder GTC4) and sell at a rate of about 2,000-3,000 per year, potentially boosting the automaker past the 10,000 annual unit mark for the first time in its history. (Car projected both a higher price and volume in initially breaking the story.)
In the end, the demand for high-end crossovers is likely proving too much for Ferrari and its shareholders to resist. That's what drove Porsche into the market, and what's since motivated Alfa Romeo and Maserati to follow suit, not to mention other high-end marques like Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Ferrari's will likely compete more directly, however, with the forthcoming Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus. And the pretense of its image as a sports car with ground clearance, rather than a crossover SUV, may be as key to its success as the Prancing Horse emblem on the nose.
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