If you don’t know who Jony Ive is, let me educate you. He just happens to be one of the most influential industrial designers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Ive is the guy who set the design-language blueprint for the iPhone and many other Apple products. He departed Apple in 2019 after spending 27 years at the company.

Ive subsequently set up his own design consultancy, LoveFrom, and he’s paid millions for his creative and visionary services. Apparently, he’s a billionaire several times over, having sold his side-hustle AI startup, but Mr. Ive still likes to get his hands dirty on the sketch pad. His latest project is a collaboration with Ferrari.

Ferrari is racing ahead with preparations for its first electric car. The Luce is expected to be a four-door GT of some description—although that part remains a bit vague. In the run-up to the big reveal, Ferrari showed off the Luce’s interior design at a publicity event in San Francisco.

Naturally, the world’s motoring press received their invites. They filmed their YouTube videos and wrote their articles. The Luce’s interior design, as observed so far, is a complete departure from Ferrari’s more recent superfluous design trends.

The Ive-designed interior leans heavily into minimalism, with an emphasis on tactility and intuitive human-interface design. It’s safe to say this interior wasn’t designed for monkeys.

Nevertheless, it harks back to vintage steering-wheel designs from the 1960s: exposed anodised aluminium steering-wheel spokes, a leather-wrapped rim, and solid aluminium toggle switches positioned beneath the touchscreen.

The touchscreen itself is the correct size—not too big, not too small. There’s a square instrument binnacle set against a semi-circular steering wheel, paired with crisp display graphics.

Then there’s the central console, where the key fob resides. No piano-black elements here—it’s all glass. Everything looks extremely polished and well thought out. But does it look too pretentious? And why does it look like it was designed for the interior of a Ford Transit?

The attention to detail is second to none, but I don’t yearn for it. I’m not wowed—perhaps just curious to see how it integrates into the finished product. For now, I’m sitting on the fence. I like parts of it in isolation, but it doesn’t quite gel as a whole.

And here’s the thing: in the design process, you can over-design when you have too much time on your hands, and that’s what I think has happened here. Yes, the engineering and effort to perfect certain attributes are admirable, but that comes with the territory—it’s part of the industrial design process.

I don’t understand why they used circular air vents. I think circular air vents look ugly, but that’s just my opinion. In my view, McLaren designs the best automotive interiors of any sports-car manufacturer. Their infotainment system is small because McLaren’s philosophy is about driving first.

For now, the Ferrari Luce interior feels a bit pretentious, but let’s see how it fits into the overall aesthetics once the fully revealed interior is shown.