Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Well, the conversations that matter, the insights you need. This
Speaker 2: is a pulse and I'm front Sain Lacua here in London. Now.
Speaker 2: My next guest is in charge of one of the
Speaker 2: world's most iconic companies. We're of course talking Ferrari, the
Speaker 2: luxury carmaker famous for its roaring engine, has started a
Speaker 2: shift to battery power. Now it's building a factory to
Speaker 2: make hybrid and electric cars that we'll be ready next month,
Speaker 2: with the first fully electric model expected late next year.
Speaker 2: But Ferrari is still relying on its profitable combustion and
Speaker 2: vehicles also to protect margins. Well, I am delighted, so
Speaker 2: is the newsroom to be joined by Benettovina, the company's
Speaker 2: chief executive, And to thank you so much. It's so
Speaker 2: nice to catch up with you again. I think we
Speaker 2: spoke a couple of months ago and leaders talk to
Speaker 2: me a little bit about electrolification. So you weren't the
Speaker 2: first one to jump on the spandwang and do you
Speaker 2: have an advantage for having been a little bit more cautious.
Speaker 3: But I think that you know actification of journey Ferrari
Speaker 3: started a few years ago, it was the case of
Speaker 3: Formula one, and it was the case of a supercar.
Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, it is the case of four hybrid
Speaker 3: model actually six if I considered a special version. They
Speaker 3: are having a tremendous truction on the on the market.
Speaker 3: Just considering Q one, almost fifty percent of the cars
Speaker 3: that we sold in Q one are hybrid. So electric
Speaker 3: electric car is the next step in our road map.
Speaker 1: But are you happy?
Speaker 2: I think last time we spoke you were talking to
Speaker 2: me about secret protocols and the secret.
Speaker 4: I'm very happy, you're very very happy.
Speaker 1: Give us a what are you most happy about?
Speaker 3: But I think the car we are we are setting
Speaker 3: up is a car that is unique in all the respect.
Speaker 4: Let's put in this way.
Speaker 3: Our electric car just goes beyond the basic electrons and
Speaker 3: byte that everyone is talking about.
Speaker 4: There is much more in a car. But you have
Speaker 4: to wait till Q four next. I know.
Speaker 1: But what is it? Are you replicating sound? Is it
Speaker 1: the way dry?
Speaker 3: We don't like to mimic what is typical of another world.
Speaker 3: We are interpreting the technology in a unique way. Electric
Speaker 3: engine is not silent. Electric engine can deliver some emotion
Speaker 3: that usually in the mass market car that you have today,
Speaker 3: you don't find it. So it's up to us to
Speaker 3: interpret this technology in a unique way, to make something unique.
Speaker 2: So has it exceeded your expectation? And do you think
Speaker 2: that will translate into sales.
Speaker 3: It's on the way there, it's on the way to exceed.
Speaker 3: We still have some time. We are on the right track.
Speaker 3: I'm satisfied where we are. You know, the final judgment
Speaker 3: is the client. The client is the most important asset
Speaker 3: for a company because also they are the final judgment.
Speaker 4: I think the client will will have well, look at
Speaker 4: we'll like it.
Speaker 1: But we see you already have orders.
Speaker 3: Now we don't take orders. We take orders. We take
Speaker 3: orders only when we launch it. It's the same story of
Speaker 3: the dot digitial in there we announced a few days ago.
Speaker 2: But give me a sense that there there's not this
Speaker 2: war basically on evs between China and the US and
Speaker 2: Europe is also in the middle. What does that mean
Speaker 2: for the electrification of cars in general?
Speaker 3: Look, I don't maybe, yes there is. People are defining
Speaker 3: it as a war. I think for me is a
Speaker 3: nice competition.
Speaker 4: For me. This is a call to action for Europe.
Speaker 4: It's a call to action.
Speaker 3: To become more I can I say pushy, less complacent
Speaker 3: and if some I've been in my life, I've been
Speaker 3: always thought that if someone is faster than you, better,
Speaker 3: you are faster than them. And if you want this
Speaker 3: is also what we are doing in formula one that
Speaker 3: I mean in racing, that's what you have to do.
Speaker 3: If someone is faster, be faster than them, don't try
Speaker 3: to stop them.
Speaker 4: Faster and better and better?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, because if you're not, I mean, if you're
Speaker 2: not better, then it's tough.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Does Europe you think have an actual advantage in.
Speaker 3: This faster I mean in any action to let product innovation,
Speaker 3: call it customer even seeing call it cost leadership. When
Speaker 3: I say faster to visualize on a track, but in
Speaker 3: all the directions that make unique a company, in all
Speaker 3: the directions that if you want to the pillar of
Speaker 3: a system, a bit of a company.
Speaker 2: But you're dealing in supercars, right, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: like the top of the top of the town. If
Speaker 2: people buy less electric cars at the kind of base level,
Speaker 2: does it make a difference to the attractiveness of your cars?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I don't think so. I think
Speaker 3: that for a company like ours. It's important that we
Speaker 3: take the three colors, the red, the blue, and the green,
Speaker 3: and we show the client that we can harness them
Speaker 3: in a unique way in the river unique emotion. I
Speaker 3: think that we don't sell allow me to see technologies.
Speaker 3: We sell emotions and then technology a way to deliver
Speaker 3: unique emotion to our client.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, this is what you know. Luxury
Speaker 2: companies sell motions, the desirability. But what kind of client
Speaker 2: do you think is attracted to the electric for ari.
Speaker 3: I think that we will have three kinds of clients.
Speaker 3: We will have traditional client, some existing ion ferrari that
Speaker 3: will not take electric cars. Then we will take client
Speaker 3: existing client that will say, you know what, I will
Speaker 3: take also electric like I took ibrid and I see.
Speaker 3: And then there are clients to whom I already talked
Speaker 3: that are saying, you know, I will be part of
Speaker 3: your community, of your family, even only if you will
Speaker 3: be able to offer me an electric car. I think
Speaker 3: these are the three kind of clients that I'm sure
Speaker 3: we'll find in the future.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's the last one harder to find.
Speaker 3: I have to say that I have already met tens
Speaker 3: of those people that are waiting for our green car.
Speaker 4: Allow me to call in this.
Speaker 2: Way younger clients or does it or is it more
Speaker 2: bi regions.
Speaker 3: Let's say I would say, yeah, maybe younger than fifty. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but there are some people in mind between fifteen and
Speaker 3: sixty that are willing to take this kind of car.
Speaker 2: But talk me about so I see what goes you know,
Speaker 2: what kind of models are you working on?
Speaker 1: What happens to that for like ten years?
Speaker 4: What I would like to do amongst friends? Yeahah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm sure. I mean to have this kind of question.
Speaker 3: We keep going with the plan we share with Captain
Speaker 3: market day two years ago we said that we'll keep
Speaker 3: going with the twelve cylinder. We have the eight cylinder thermal,
Speaker 3: and then we have the six and d eate cylinder library,
Speaker 3: and then we're adding this platform. I think it's important
Speaker 3: for a company like ours to go ahead with this
Speaker 3: platform and to look at the car just I mean,
Speaker 3: beyond electrification, digitalization, there are many other things you can
Speaker 3: do in a car, and that's what you're doing cent
Speaker 3: ten years.
Speaker 2: How many comings do you already have an idea? Or
Speaker 2: is ten years too far away?
Speaker 4: A little bit far away? Five years?
Speaker 3: What I would like to say that you prefer quality
Speaker 3: of our revenues and our P and L to quantity.
Speaker 4: Let's messa in this way.
Speaker 1: Fair.
Speaker 2: But when you look around the world, you know, we
Speaker 2: talk about inflation. That's not something that touches a lot
Speaker 2: of your customers. We talk about those words about geopolitics.
Speaker 2: Does it impact the demand or does it make the
Speaker 2: cars more desirable?
Speaker 3: We don't see. We did not see any impact on this.
Speaker 3: I think we have to be watchful. We have to
Speaker 3: keep always to be watchful to make sure that we
Speaker 3: are on track.
Speaker 4: As so now we don't see an impact.
Speaker 3: Clear we are to manage some increase in price and
Speaker 3: cost of energy and material. We are working on that.
Speaker 3: But it's the beauty of the life, you know. We
Speaker 3: have to cope with this situation that you don't know.
Speaker 3: If you know everything, it's not fun.
Speaker 4: It's not fun.
Speaker 1: What do you worry about the most?
Speaker 3: I think that what is important for us is that
Speaker 3: one point we are a successful company, a successful team.
Speaker 3: We need to make sure that we are always with
Speaker 3: four wheels on the ground. We have always to listen
Speaker 3: the week signal from the external world. We have to
Speaker 3: care really about the sustainability like we are doing, and
Speaker 3: then we don't have to teach.
Speaker 4: We have to learn.
Speaker 3: I think this is very important because when you are
Speaker 3: in a successful team, you may lose the compass. You
Speaker 3: may start to believe that whatever you do you will
Speaker 3: be successful, and this is not good.
Speaker 4: We have to be four wheks.
Speaker 2: On the ground, humble. I like that for wheals in
Speaker 2: the ground. How do you deal with the China strategy?
Speaker 2: How do you China? How do you deal with China?
Speaker 3: For us is we said two years ago China overall
Speaker 3: China one on Kong, I mean greater China will not
Speaker 3: go beyond ten percent of our sales.
Speaker 4: Why for the caboraries.
Speaker 3: One is because the market in China is still not mature.
Speaker 4: We need to give time to mature.
Speaker 3: And the second because it's a little bit decreative on
Speaker 3: the margin side for the profit and loss. But really
Speaker 3: we need for each country we need to give the
Speaker 3: time to mature. There are other countries sour so that
Speaker 3: are showing good, good growth, and also there we have
Speaker 3: to proceed in the right way.
Speaker 2: I mean, the China template could be a little bit
Speaker 2: different to other markets. Right, because there's a crackdown on
Speaker 2: some luxurious you know brands. So again, how do you
Speaker 2: see that evolving? Is it like a stop and start?
Speaker 3: I would like to say in this way, China is
Speaker 3: not for Ferrari what it is for other luxury brands.
Speaker 3: In other cases, you have exposure that is more than
Speaker 3: twenty percent. In our case it is less than ten percent.
Speaker 3: It will stay less than ten percent for the reason
Speaker 3: I told you. For sure, we have also people from
Speaker 3: that nationality buying outside. But I think they said there
Speaker 3: are a couple of things I'm particularly proud of the
Speaker 3: last capital market day. One is to keep China built
Speaker 3: ten percent in two, to keep going with the three
Speaker 3: colors in our product strategy formula one.
Speaker 1: This weekend Monaco, this is the big one.
Speaker 2: Are you worried about the red bull gap getting a
Speaker 2: little bit smaller?
Speaker 3: But I think that this year we are in a
Speaker 3: better situation than one year ago, because if I see
Speaker 3: the last seven races, we took seven podium. In one
Speaker 3: case we took two, in other case we took zero,
Speaker 3: but we took seven podium. We cut the distance between
Speaker 3: us and the first one and by factor three versus
Speaker 3: last year. So I think the team is doing decent process.
Speaker 3: We are on the on the right track.
Speaker 1: So you're confidence for Scuda.
Speaker 3: I think there are there have been substantial progresses. We
Speaker 3: have to keep improving like we like. We have to
Speaker 3: keep improving in every window. I mean, this is the
Speaker 3: beauty of life.
Speaker 2: This isn't This is a nice philosophy, full stop. Benedetto,
Speaker 2: as always, thank you so much for joining us. That
Speaker 2: was Benedetto Vina, the chief executive of Ferrari