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It looks like Ferrari has been reading Green Car Guide’s EV reviews because it has designed the interior of its first EV based exactly on our advice.
Green Car Guide has reviewed every electric car that’s ever been on sale in the UK and for many years we’ve said that having all controls on a touchscreen when driving is a bad idea. And it looks like Ferrari has agreed – or at least, the designer of the interior of the Ferrari Luce, the brand’s first EV.
Ferrari has been collaborating with LoveFrom, the creative collective founded by iPhone designer Sir Jony Ive with fellow designer Marc Newson, for five years on every aspect of the new car’s design.
As well as displays, the Ferrari Luce (meaning ‘light’ or ‘illumination’ in Italian), features physical controls including mechanical buttons, dials, toggles and switches. A number of key analogue controls are located on the steering wheel, reflecting the layout of Formula One single seaters. Every button has been developed to provide the most effective combination of mechanical and acoustic feedback based on more than 20 evaluation tests with Ferrari test drivers.
Ferrari says that “The three displays in the Luce – driver binnacle, control panel and rear control panel – have been meticulously designed for clarity and purpose. The team spent significant time considering the organisation of inputs (controls) and outputs (displays), making the user experience intuitive and easy to navigate.”
“Controls are inspired by both historic automotive cues and the purposeful, clear graphics found in aviation, particularly helicopters and aircraft.
“This approach is rooted in the concept of reducing cognitive load for the driver. By referencing the simplicity of analogue watch dials, where time can be read at a glance, the designers aimed to make the car’s controls and displays equally intuitive. The graphics are purposefully minimal and clear, allowing drivers to glean essential information quickly and effortlessly while keeping their attention on the road.”
An instrument cluster mounted on the steering column is a first for a production Ferrari. The binnacle moves with the steering wheel, optimising the driver’s view of the instrumentation. And the Luce’s control panel is mounted on a ball-and-socket joint, allowing the screen to be oriented towards either the driver or the passenger.
The technology underpinning the Ferrari Luce was unveiled in October 2025. The third and final phase of the launch, including the exterior reveal, will be hosted in Italy in May 2026.
Ferrari Luce interior designer Jony Ive has said that touchscreens are the wrong interface for cars because they mean drivers must take their eyes off the road. The design of the car’s interior to avoid reliance on a large touchscreen has also caught the attention of FleetCheck, which says that fleets should consider removing “touchscreen only” cars from choice lists on safety grounds.
Peter Golding, CEO of FleetCheck, said: “There is now overwhelming evidence that touchscreen controls represent a serious risk, with a whole slew of credible studies showing they are distracting for drivers and interrupt concentration to an unacceptable degree.
“We’re probably already seeing a general move by manufacturers away from placing everything on touchscreens towards a more hybrid approach where at least major controls such as heating have physical knobs and buttons, something being encouraged by Euro NCAP, among others.
“However, there remain some popular company cars commonly included on choice lists that are touchscreen-only and it is probably time for fleets to consider whether this is the right thing to do? These vehicles are inherently risky and there are plenty of alternatives that provide safer access to vehicle controls.”
Paul Clarke, Editor of Green Car Guide, adds: “Many electric cars have virtually all their main car controls on a central touchscreen. This means that, to operate key car controls, a driver has to look at the touchscreen, then press a menu, and in many cases a sub-menu, and sometimes another button. Looking away from the road for so long when driving is obviously not safe, which is why having easy to see and easy to reach physical controls for key car controls is a much better solution.
“The latest cars have voice control functionality, which is designed to avoid having to use the touchscreen, but in my experience this technology doesn’t always work effectively. And I’ve also tested a number of cars when the touchscreen stopped working, which makes it almost impossible to drive safely. So we would like to see all cars with user-friendly physical controls for key functions.”
