Icona: Ferrari unveils to its shareholders the special edition of the supercar that marks its future

Ferrari plans to expand its range of limited-edition supercars in order to increase its profit margins and meet the growing competition the brand faces in the market. The Icona, the name given to the model at the heart of this project, forms an integral part of the highly anticipated strategic plan that the new chief executive of the Maranello brand, Louis Camilleri —appointed by John Elkan following the death of Sergio Marchionne— presented to Ferrari’s investors yesterday, Monday 17 September.

Although no images or data about the new model, whose project is internally designated F176, have emerged so far, the Icona could be built on the basis of the Ferrari 812 Superfast, the model with which the Maranello brand celebrated its 70th anniversary as a car manufacturer and which is considered one of the most exclusive models from the Italian maker. Under the hood of the special edition could sit an upgraded and updated version of the 6.5-litre V12 engine producing more than 850 CV of maximum power, which would propel the Icona past 340 km/h.

The Icona will expand the range of limited-edition supercars from the maker of the prancing horse. These special-edition models are generally the ones that bring a larger volume of profits to Ferrari. Since they carry much higher profit margins, their contribution to the company’s earnings is also far greater, allowing Ferrari to improve its operating results while maintaining and even enhancing its image of exclusivity.

Special-edition models, which are mostly bought by the brand’s most loyal customers, take more than a year to reach the hands of their buyers and are among the most sought-after units in the ultra-exclusive supercar market, where Ferrari faces growing competition every day from its most direct rivals (Aston Martin, Lamborghini, McLaren, …).

The future of Ferrari, one of Marchionne’s unfinished agendas

Following Marchionne’s death, one of his unfinished agendas was the future plan for Ferrari. The Italian executive had intended to step down as chairman of the FCA group, but to remain at the helm of Ferrari for at least the next five years, a period during which he would develop a strategic plan that, although outlined in broad strokes, has not yet been completed or presented to the strategic partners and investors of the brand.

Some time ago, Marchionne spun Ferrari off from the FCA Group and doubled the brand’s profits in just four years thanks to increased production and the introduction of the first special editions or one-off models, such as the LaFerrari Aperta, for example (the open-top version of the LaFerrari), whose exclusive units currently trade for more than 2 million euros on the market and are highly sought after by collectors.

Marchionne’s plans for Ferrari also envisaged the introduction of electric and hybrid vehicles into the range of the Modena manufacturer, innovations that would also include the first SUV produced by Ferrari. Camilleri faces a difficult challenge, since Marchionne announced last February that his goal was for Ferrari to double its earnings, reaching annual profits of more than 2,000 million euros within five years (2022).

Marchionne has taken his idea with him, so at the meeting already scheduled with the brand’s investors for yesterday, Monday 17 September, Camilleri must bring them up to date on both the current situation of the brand and the future path it intends to follow in the coming years. For this reason, for now no further details have emerged about the new special edition of the supercar that Ferrari is preparing, nor about the possible changes Camilleri plans to make to the roadmap —which was never specified— laid out by Marchionne before his death.

The name Icona is not new

In 2013 it was used by Claudio Lombardi, former technical director of the Scuderia Ferrari, to name the Icona Vulcano, a model that was presented at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show and continued at the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with the Icona Vulcano Titanium, the first car in the world made from that material and equipped with a 670 CV powertrain that, at the customer’s request, could be pushed to deliver 1,000 CV. The Shanghai Icona Vulcano featured a hybrid powertrain delivering a total of 900 CV.