Jony Ive spent years shaping ideas for the Apple Car before Apple shut the project down. Those designs will likely stay hidden. Still, a new electric Ferrari offers a clear hint at the direction Ive was heading. The interior of the upcoming Ferrari Luce was designed by Ive’s studio Lovefrom, and the result feels close to what many expected from an Apple-built car.
The Ferrari Luce cockpit reflects a design language that defined Apple products for more than a decade. The space relies on strict symmetry, smooth curves, and obsessive attention to detail. If you remember Apple’s hardware design from the iPhone 4 era, the feeling will sound familiar. Everything looks intentional, calm, and tightly controlled.
A design language rooted in Apple’s past
The interior leans heavily on circles and rounded rectangles, often called squircles. Every element lines up with precision. Nothing feels decorative for the sake of it. Instead, the design focuses on balance, materials, and touch.
According to Engadget, Apple’s former design chief personally walked visitors through the cockpit.
Engadget’s Tim Stevens highlighted how closely the Ferrari interior matches Ive’s earlier Apple work. He described a space filled with refined geometry and near-perfect symmetry. The materials play a major role in that effect, with glass and metal dominating nearly every surface.
The Ferrari Luce interior uses more than 40 pieces of Corning Gorilla Glass. These appear across the dashboard, gauge cluster, and even the shifter area. Some glass elements feature subtle curves rather than flat panels, which adds depth without visual noise.
Where glass is absent, aluminum takes over. Much of it comes anodized in muted tones, including gray, dark gray, and rose gold. The color choices stay restrained and consistent. Nothing distracts from the overall form.
One detail stands out for its quiet creativity. The car key includes a yellow panel backed by an E Ink display. When you insert the key into the center console, the yellow fades and reappears through the glass shifter above it. The effect suggests energy moving from one place to another, without relying on screens or animation.
Candid remarks during the reveal
Wired also covered the event and noted an unscripted moment during Ive’s introduction.
Wired’s Jeremy White quoted Ive saying, “Part of my grumpy belligerence now is I’m done working with assholes.” The comment drew laughter from the audience and hinted at a more unfiltered phase of Ive’s career. The remark stood out, but it did not distract from the design itself.
The Ferrari Luce does not confirm what the Apple Car would have looked like. Still, the similarities are hard to ignore. The focus on materials, the absence of visual clutter, and the calm confidence of the layout all align with Ive’s long-standing design values.
We may never see the Apple Car interior. This Ferrari comes close enough to imagine it.
