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Just recently, Dieter Knechtel, chief executive of Ferrari Far and Middle East, has put an end to speculations in the online world about Ferrari building electric or self-driving cars. In an interview with Arabian Business at the debut of the brand's 70th anniversary limited edition models in Dubai, the CEO said that electric and autonomous cars are not "fitting with their brand". According to Knechtel, he doesn't see their clients being interested in an autonomous Ferrari. He noted that electrification is extremely important for them, but there would not be any 100 percent electric car coming from the brand. However, he revealed that the brand is working on integrating hybrid technology across all of its models. Knechtel added that there's a lot of research going into it and in a couple of years, they would likely unveil the first one, out of the normal range, with a hybrid engine. He also emphasized that they want to apply the Ferrari approach when utilizing hybrid technology.
"When you look at the V8 engine that we launched for the 488GTB Spider, it has been awarded the best turbo engine of the year two times in a row. It’s the best turbo engine in the market, because we managed to produce it with no turbo lag. It is forbidden for Ferrari to have turbo lag. Our clients deserve something more. When we talk about the hybrid engine, the same thing applies. We would like to have our own hybrid approach. We are not followers of any trends," he continued.
In accordance with Knechtel, the purpose of applying hybrid technology would not be to save fuel, but to enhance performance.
He said that it is not their ultimate mission to develop a hybrid only for the purpose of saving fuel. "It’s good to save fuel, but for us, it’s more important to boost performance. We want to be the highest performing car. We have always promised to be so. We have fulfilled it and we want to keep our promise. Clients expect that from us and we don’t want to fail them."
Knechtel recently visited Dubai to celebrate the automaker's 70th anniversary, where the LaFerrari Aperta and two special edition cars were launched to mark the occasion.
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