Robinhood’s cofounder says he’s buying a Ferrari Luce as a ‘baby-mobile’

Baiju Bhatt has heard the criticism around the Ferrari Luce.

He’s buying the polarizing EV anyway. “Of course it’s controversial.

What did anyone expect?” Bhatt, the Robinhood cofounder, told Business Insider. “It’s an electric car from a company that makes V-12s that run on dragon’s blood that breathe fire out of the exhaust pipes.” For decades, Ferrari has built its identity around screaming internal-combustion engines bolted into low-slung sports cars.

The Luce pushes the brand into unfamiliar territory: a quiet, four-door, five-seat electric Ferrari with a design shaped in part by one of Apple’s most famous alums.

That departure has made the car a lightning rod among Ferrari fans.

Online, critics have compared its rounded, midsize SUV-like silhouette to far less exotic EVs, including the $30,000 Nissan Leaf. $600k Ferrari Luce Vs $30k Nissan LeafIs it just me, or do they look pretty similar? pic.twitter.com/IjbtRVpNsN Bhatt — who is now leading Cowboy Space Corporation, an orbital-infrastructure startup formerly known as Aetherflux — is part of a small group of people with enough funds to buy a Ferrari.

Forbes lists his net worth at $6.6 billion.

He recently revealed he was splashing out on the Luce during an interview on the tech podcast TBPN, largely because of its designer. 🤷🏾😂 https://t.co/IPqteniZLO “I got it because I’m a huge Jony Ive fanboy,” he said on the pod, referring to the famed former Apple design chief, whose firm LoveFrom worked on the car.

Ive’s fingerprints are all over the car, from its tactile interior buttons to its slippery exterior panels.

Bhatt told Business Insider he’s “a fan of many of the unexpected elements” of the Luce’s design — including the handlebar on the pivoting infotainment screen and the steering wheel that reminds him of iconic Ferraris from the 1970s and 1980s. “The Luce also strikes an unexpected balance of new and vintage,” Bhatt said. “Very cool.” Still, for all the design admiration, Bhatt said on TBPN that he might not spend much time in the hypercar’s cockpit: “I’m going to confess right now, I’m going to probably make my wife drive it.

It’s probably going to be the baby-mobile.” The Luce is an extravagant candidate for a family hauler.

Ferrari’s first fully electric model has four doors, five seats, four electric motors, 1,035 horsepower, and a starting price of roughly $640,000.

It can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in about 2.5 seconds.

Bhatt told Business Insider he’s going to stick with his Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale — the company’s new manual-shifting racer — as his daily driver. “It’s about damn time they brought back the third pedal,” he said about Ferrari’s recent 14-year absence from building stick shift models.

As for the social media derision around his new EV, Bhatt said he’s going to ignore the haters. “I appreciate opinions, but I don’t make decisions about a car — or anything really — until I have had time to use it, test it out, and experience it myself,” he said.

So yes, Bhatt is buying the quiet, SUV-ish Ferrari EV for his family.

But his heart may still belong to the kind that makes noise — and asks drivers to shift for themselves.