Well, well, well. If it isn’t the prancing horse caught in a bureaucratic ditch. Ferrari, that gilded monument to petrolhead pomposity, has hit a speed bump on the road to electrification.
Its shareholders, presumably men with side-parted hair and tie pins fashioned from the teeth of extinct animals, are ‘voicing concerns’ about the move to battery power. Apparently, the idea of a silent Ferrari is as appealing as a fart in a space suit. But fear not, dear reader, for this is where the British bulldog wags its tail in smug satisfaction.
While the Italians faff about with voltage and investor jitters, the UK auto industry is quietly revving up to outpace the Chinese. Yes, you heard me. British innovation.
That phrase you haven’t heard since the days of spats and steam trains. But it’s true. Our island of eccentric engineers and backroom tinkerers is poised to leapfrog the electric dragon.
How? By eschewing the ‘cut-and-paste’ approach of the Chinese and instead building cars with the sort of plucky British spirit that won the Battle of Britain and invented the bouncing bomb. We are talking about graphene batteries that charge in the time it takes to sneeze, and aluminium space-frames lighter than a politician’s promise.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s shareholders are having conniptions because the new electric model won’t make the proper ‘vroom vroom’ noise. Honestly, it’s like they’ve just discovered that water is wet. So let Ferrari stew in its own internal combustion confusion.
The UK is here, with a cup of tea in one hand and a carbon-fibre chassis in the other, ready to overtake the Chinese on the final straight. And if that doesn’t make you want to invest in a British startup, then I’ll eat my flat cap. Twice.
