Ferrari unveils Purosangue, a 4-door, V-12-powered sports car

Ferrari on Tuesday revealed its new Purosangue, the 75-year-old sports car maker’s first-ever four-door production vehicle.

The Purosangue looks like an SUV, akin to other luxury sports SUVs from brands like Porsche and Maserati. But despite its size, shape and higher stance, the company insists that the Purosangue – which means “thoroughbred” in Italian – is a sports car, designed from the ground up as a true Ferrari.

The Purosangue may not have a traditional Ferrari shape, but it will sound like a Ferrari. The new model is powered by a 6.5-liter, 715-horsepower V-12 engine that is mounted behind the front axle, rather than over it as with most SUVs and crossovers.

Ferrari said the location of the engine – and of the Purosangue’s transaxle, mounted at the rear – distributes the vehicle’s weight almost evenly among the four wheels, improving its handling.

While Ferrari is best known for its two-seat sports cars, the company has been building four-seaters since the early 1960s, and all-wheel-drive models since the FF coupe was introduced in 2011. But even Ferrari admits the Purosangue moves the storied brand into new territory.

The Purosangue will start at 390,000 euros ($389,000) in Italy, Ferrari said, making it the company’s second most expensive production model behind the 440,000-euro SF90 hybrid sports car.

Deliveries will begin in the second quarter of 2023 in Europe, in the third quarter in the United States, and by the end of next year in other global markets, the automaker said.

Despite its hefty starting price, the Purosangue is likely to be popular with Ferrari’s affluent clients.

Rival Porsche’s two SUVs, the Cayenne and Macan, together accounted for about 55% of Porsche’s production in 2021. But Ferrari won’t let the Purosangue get quite that popular: The company plans to limit production of the Purosangue to no more than 20% of its total annual output, or only about 3,000 units per year.