Italy: By now, it’s common for almost every traditional car brand to have some sort of offering in the electric car market in Australia.

While EVs make up just 10 per cent of all new car sales, and growing slowly, the introduction of an electric model can bring new customers to a brand and create a new experience for existing owners.

However, many people might be shocked to hear that Ferrari is launching their own full electric car next year.

Far from a traditional new car launch, Ferrari’s gathering of the world’s media at their factory in Maranello, Italy revealed only the direction the company was taking as well as the raw and bare underpinnings of the future electric car – the chassis.

The first of three steps toward revealing the car itself somewhere mid-way through next year, today’s event was about setting a benchmark for what to expect, and also creating some certainty for fans of the brand that this new EV would indeed be every bit as Ferrari.

Speaking exclusively to 9News, Ferrari’s chief product development officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi stressed the importance of this announcement, saying “it’s a new chapter of our history”.

“It’s a very important day for us,” Fulgenzi said.

“Let me say an historic day, because we wanted to continue our electrification journey starting many years ago.”

That journey, as he outlines, took the company from their electrified Formula One cars, into road cars like the LaFerrari, SF90 and others which feature hybrid electrified powertrains to today.

“We wanted to complete this electrification journey to develop a completely new car,” Fulgenzi said.

“Also to enlarge the customer base for our car.”

There is no question, though, that petrol-powered internal combustion engines will continue to be part of the Ferrari line-up for a long time to come.

As Fulgenzi put it, Ferraris will be “not all electric, but also electric”.

While announcing this Ferrari Elettrica, the company was at pains to point out its deep knowledge of what makes a car feel great to drive – what it is that creates the thrill of driving that Ferraris are known for.

In fact, they know it, and spell it out well: sound, gear change, braking, lateral and longitudinal acceleration.

So can an electric car replicate all these sensations?

Fulgenzi says: “It’s not only an electric car, it’s a Ferrari.”

“First of all. First and foremost, it’s a Ferrari.

“What does it mean? What does it mean that the car that has an electric powertrain, but that creates the same emotion of the other Ferrari cars.”

There’s a real emotive sense to Fulgenzi’s passion for this brand and this upcoming car, based around that driving experience.

“Driving thrills are something that starts in the brain, explode in the heart, creating butterflies in the stomach, and create a very big smile in the face when you drive the car and push you and your companion or your family to use the car massively every day, every moment, because using the car, you enjoy yourself.”

Like other Ferraris before it, over decades, the all-electric Ferrari will be born in Maranello, Fulgenzi pointing out the significance of this.

“We are very proud to say that every core components are thought, developed and produced in-house,” he said.

“Because like we have done in the last 78 years for the internal combustion engine that we produce, we think, we develop, we test our internal combustion engine in-house – and also for the electric components.

“For the inverter, for the battery system these components, the key components for the electric cars.

“So we want strongly to develop them in-house and to keep them in-house, to pursue the excellence and also to guarantee the usability for the car also for the future.”

I witnessed the very factory floor where the battery is being assembled from raw battery cells, where electric motors are built, paired with gearing and placed into assemblies forged within a few kilometre radius of each other – all by Ferrari.

We won’t see this new electric car until half-way through next year, but here’s what we can surmise based on what we’ve heard thus far.

The Ferrari Elettrica will be a new model and carry a new name.

It will also be an SUV body shape, perhaps similar to the Purosangue which is on the roads today.

And it will be fast, very fast.

A top speed of 310km/h, accelerating from zero to 100km/h in just 2.5 seconds.

A 122kWh battery will provide at least 530km of range and four motors will power each of the wheels independently, each of which can also steer with the front wheels able to be disconnected from the drivetrain in search of range on open highway driving.

The specifications look fantastic, and if the company can deliver on the exterior design in the same way they have the underlying technology, then we’re in for something very special.

Trevor Long travelled to Italy as a guest of Ferrari Australia.