The first Ferrari Luce ever built, known as Chassis 0, sold for $40 million at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction during Monterey Car Week in August. The Luce is Ferrari’s first series-production electric car, and this example was offered without reserve as a “Tailor Made” charity lot, with the proceeds going to the Ferrari Foundation to fund educational initiatives. RM Sotheby’s is one of the leading houses in the collector-car market, and Monterey’s auction sales this year ran from 13 to 15 August.
The result set three records at once. According to Motor1 and Motorious, the Luce is now the most expensive electric car, the most expensive new car and the most expensive charity car ever sold at auction. Its pre-sale estimate was a little over $1.1 million, which means it sold for about 36 times that figure.
It was also the second-highest price of a record-breaking week. Only a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, sold for $42,905,000, fetched more, and the Luce finished ahead of the $34,655,000 paid for a McLaren F1 GTR. Abu Dhabi’s The National reported the sale on 17 August under the headline “Ferrari’s first electric car sells for record $40 million”.
What Chassis 0 is
Chassis 0 is the first Luce to be built. Its exterior is finished in Madreperla Semi-Gloss, Madreperla being Italian for mother-of-pearl, with wheels and brake calipers to match. Inside, the cabin is trimmed in Le Mans metallic leather in Perla, with Grigio Corvara accents. The car was offered under the Tailor Made name, that of Ferrari’s personalisation programme, through which clients choose colours and materials beyond the standard range.
The Luce itself is a five-seat electric car with four electric motors, two at the front and two at the rear, and a combined output of 1,050 hp. Ferrari quotes 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds. A series-production car is one built in numbers for customers, unlike a concept or a one-off, and that is what makes the Luce a milestone: it is the first electric Ferrari that clients can order.
From Elettrica to Luce
Ferrari presented the technology of its first electric car, then known as the Elettrica, in Maranello in October 2025. The finished car, named Luce, was revealed only a few months before the sale, according to Motor1. The timing matters: the bidders in Monterey were competing for a model that had only just been shown to the world.
Ferrari builds its electric models in the e-building in Maranello, which opened in 2025. Production cars are expected to cost about €550,000, Motor1 reports, and early demand has been strong.
Seen against that figure, the Chassis 0 result stands out. Production cars will sell for a small fraction of the auction price. What the sale offered was something no order book can: the first one.
Why pay 36 times the estimate
Several factors came together in one lot. The car was offered without reserve, which means there was no minimum price and it would sell at whatever the bidding reached. It was the first example of a model that marks a turning point for the company, its first electric car. And the proceeds were going to charity, so bidding higher also meant giving more.
The result is a measure of what Ferrari’s most committed clients will pay to be first. A pre-sale estimate tries to predict the market value of a car. It cannot predict what a collector will give for a place at the start of a new chapter in the marque’s history, especially when the money goes to a good cause.
Each of the three records tells part of the story. As the most expensive electric car sold at auction, the Luce shows that collectors will pay a very high price for an electric car when it carries the right name. As the most expensive new car, it stands above every car ever offered at auction when new. And as the most expensive charity car, it sets a new benchmark for giving through the collector-car market.
What it means for the Gulf
The sale drew attention well beyond California, where Monterey Car Week gathers collectors from around the world each August. Alongside The National’s report, an Associated Press story carried by American broadcasters ran under the headline “Luce, Ferrari’s first electric car, sells for $40 million in charity sale”.
For Ferrari’s clients in the Gulf, the result is an early sign of how the marque’s first electric car is valued by the people closest to it. It also suggests that, among Ferrari’s most committed collectors, the arrival of electric power has not dimmed the appetite for a Ferrari that is the first of its kind.
Monterey’s auctions are usually about the past: cars with racing records, famous owners and decades of history. This year, one of the two highest prices of the week was paid for a car with no history at all, only a future, and the money will go to education.
Sources: Motor1, Motorious, The National, Associated Press