Ferrari unveiled its first electric vehicle. The internet responded with memes. Shares dropped 8% the next day. Weeks later, the man who decided which clients were worthy of buying Ferrari’s rarest cars announced he was walking out the door. Enrico Galliera, chief marketing and commercial officer for over 16 years, will leave the company, according to Ferrari’s statement. His replacement, Massimiliano Di Silvestre — formerly head of BMW Italy — starts 1 July. Ferrari insists the timing is pure coincidence. The timeline, however, reads like a restaurant going viral on TikTok for serving raw chicken, then announcing the head chef had been “planning to leave for a while.”
The Luce carries a reported price tag of around $640,000. At that altitude, you’re not selling a car — you’re selling mythology. When your ultra-luxury EV debut triggers widespread mockery instead of waitlist hysteria, the problem isn’t aerodynamics. It’s brand equity under stress.
What You Need to Know
Here are the facts Ferrari’s statement left you to piece together yourself.
- Galliera spent 16-plus years at Ferrari, managing client access to the brand’s most exclusive vehicles
- Di Silvestre, his replacement from BMW Italy, begins 1 July
- Ferrari’s official statement made zero mention of the Luce launch
- Galliera declined to comment beyond the company statement
- Ferrari says the departure decision was communicated before the Luce reveal
CEO Benedetto Vigna praised Galliera for playing “a significant role” in Ferrari’s growth and global brand strength — the kind of send-off that tends to accompany exits nobody wants to explain in detail.
The Gatekeeper Problem
Galliera wasn’t just a marketer; he was the velvet rope between collectors and Ferrari’s most coveted vehicles.
His role determined which collectors earned the privilege of buying Ferrari’s limited-production models. That exclusivity engine is the core of Ferrari’s commercial identity. Replacing that person with an outsider — immediately after a controversial launch Ferrari won’t even name in the departure announcement — signals that the brand believes its commercial strategy needs serious recalibration.
Can a BMW Veteran Fix a Prancing Horse?
Di Silvestre brings electrification experience, but Ferrari’s challenge runs deeper than a product roadmap.
Bringing in Di Silvestre is a bit like hiring a Spotify executive to rescue a vinyl-only record label: adjacent expertise, entirely different universe. BMW navigated electrification without a full identity meltdown. Ferrari, though, doesn’t sell transportation. It sells the feeling that you arrived. That’s considerably harder to electrify than a drivetrain.
Ferrari maintains the timing is coincidental. Di Silvestre’s task is straightforward but enormous: convince the world that Ferrari’s electric future doesn’t require abandoning what made it Ferrari. He hasn’t sold a single Prancing Horse yet.
