The world’s first HEV hypercar

Combine a Toyota Prius with Formula 1 and you might get the LaFerrari

For Ferrari, 2013 was a watershed year. The LaFerrari was its first production hybrid electrified vehicle (HEV), which was a revolution in itself.

But the V12 hybrid powertrain also enabled Ferrari to bring something tangibly F1-related to the streets: the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) introduced to the sport in 2009, essentially a form of hybrid-regen where power is recovered under braking and stored for later use. Similar to a Toyota Prius . . . bit more performance focused maybe.

LaFerrari was a clear signal to the cognoscenti that the marque was serious about embracing electric technology. For a start, there’s the name: as we all now know, “LaFerrari” simply means “The Ferrari”, meaning it was supposed to be the definitive model for the brand.

Just to underline the point, it was Ferrari’s most powerful road car ever at the time, with 708kW/ 900Nm.

LaFerrari also happened to be the first Ferrari production model since the 1970s to be designed independently of Pininfarina; not a rejection of the legendary styling house (which continued its Ferrari association afterwards), but rather a demonstration that the company could break with tradition in order to blast into the future with lightning bolts.

Just 500 LaFerrari coupes were produced, from 2013-16, and then a further 210 examples of the Aperta roadster (2016-18).

LaFerrari is also now regarded as one of the “holy trinity” of electrified hypercars from that era, alongside the Porsche 918 and McLaren P1 (both 2013-15). Unlike its rivals, LaFerrari was a HEV rather than a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), but Ferrari has since moved the game on: the latest SF90 V8 is indeed a PHEV (with triple electric motors) and even more powerful than LaFerrari, with 735kW/800Nm.