Back in 2021, when Ferrari was on the hunt for a new CEO, it made the somewhat unusual decision to hire someone from the tech industry, not the automotive world. The rationale behind choosing Benedetto Vigna may be coming into focus as techniques from the tech industry are being used to develop its first fully electric vehicle.
As we know, Ferrari is planning to launch its first EV in 2025, and is working to electrify more and more of its lineup over the coming years. Vigna says that development is well on its way thanks to techniques like “Hardware in the Loop” testing.
The approach may be familiar to the CEO from his days at microchip manufacturer, STMicroelectronics. It seeks to simulate the behaviors of products under as many different conditions as possible, reports Reuters. Normally applied to smartphones and computers, it is now being adopted more widely in the automotive realm.
Read: Ferrari Appoints Tech-Industry Veteran Benedetto Vigna As New CEO
“Some have started to use it for cars, and we have too. This allows you to accelerate the debugging phase of the electronic system,” Vigna said. “It took us some time to get prepared, but (thanks to this technique) we have already solved a few problems that in our hybrid models normally came up at a later stage of development.”
Currently in the prototype phase, Vigna told reporters that Ferrari’s first EV is well on its way, and on schedule in terms of both vehicle and infrastructure development. In addition, the automaker’s new “e-building” (which will build both electric and hybrid vehicles) is ready and waiting for the electric vehicle.
Although the new CEO is bringing a lot of tech industry know-how to Ferrari, he is eager to let the world know that the automaker hasn’t forgotten how to do what it does best. Early in October, he revealed that he has already driven a prototype of its first EV, and said that he “liked it a lot.”
Note: These independent renderings are off-the-record and unrelated to Ferrari.
