Wheels was in Maranello to test the new 296 Speciale and take a close look at the architecture that will underpin Ferrari’s first fully-electric vehicle, and the following day at the manufacturer’s presentation and investor update, the share price took a significant hit – down 15 per cent.

That hit came despite Ferrari continuing to sell strongly in key markets around the world, the brand lifting annual guidance and laying out even more ambitious long-term revenue and profit targets. Interestingly, it would appear that investors have reacted negatively to Ferrari’s revised expectations for the transition to electric production, where it has cut its 2030 target from 40 per cent down to 20 per cent.

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The share price hit came hot on the heels of the global first drive of the 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale, with its hybrid powertrain, that the brand used as the opportunity to tell global media it would continue to focus on internal combustion combined with hybrid technology.

As part of that strategy, Ferrari has halved its fully-electric model mix.

Ferrari is just one of the brands caught in the crosshairs of government demands that vehicles should be electric, customers who don’t want electric electric vehicles in the numbers that governments want, and development and production costs, which remain prohibitive. In an investment market where some investors are heavily and aggressively EV-focused, the move by Ferrari might be seen as sitting on the fence.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, who had presented the first electric Ferrari to the world’s media the day before, effectively admitted that Ferrari is caught between a rock and a hard place, stating that Ferrari customers still largely wanted the emotional connection provided by an internal combustion engine.

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“There are still many opportunities to make internal combustion engines more efficient,” Vigna said. “We are investing in all technologies that can bring more emotion and more performance. This is not a revolution for Ferrari. It is the next chapter of the same story and we have always been driven by innovation, but we never forget where we came from.”

The fascinating part of the next period for Ferrari, is that it enters the next phase in a stronger position financially than it ever has before. Profit per vehicle sold is at a record high, money spent by customers on the personalisation element of the business is at record levels, and demand for wildly expensive one-off models is also high. And yet, investors remain sceptical of where the brand sits in regard to the transition to electric.