According to Reuters, Ferrari’s marketing and commercial boss, the company has begun to take cryptocurrency payments for its high-end sports vehicles in the United States and will expand the programme to Europe at the behest of its affluent clientele.
Because of the volatility of bitcoin and other tokens, which makes them unsuitable for use in commerce, the great majority of well-known corporations have avoided investing in cryptocurrency. Inadequate regulation and excessive energy consumption have further hindered the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method.
Among them is the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, which started taking bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, as payment in 2021 until CEO Elon Musk stopped it due to environmental concerns.
Ferrari’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, Enrico Galliera, told Reuters that the company has implemented new software and increased its usage of renewable energy sources in an attempt to lessen its carbon impact.
“Our target to reach for carbon neutrality by 2030 along our whole value chain is absolutely confirmed,” he stated in a recent interview.
Ferrari stated that since many of its clients have made cryptocurrency investments, the move was made in response to requests from the dealers and market.
“Some are young investors who have built their fortunes around cryptocurrencies,” he stated. “Some others are more traditional investors, who want to diversify their portfolios.”
Although certain cryptocurrencies, like ether, the second-largest, have become more energy-efficient, bitcoin is still criticised for requiring a lot of energy to mine.
In the first half of this year, Ferrari shipped almost 1,800 vehicles to its Americas region, which includes the United States.
How many automobiles Ferrari planned to sell through cryptocurrency was not disclosed by Galliera. According to him, the company had a robust order portfolio that was fully booked through 2025, but they still wanted to test this expanding universe.
“This will help us connect to people who are not necessarily our clients but might afford a Ferrari,” he stated.
The Italian company intends to expand the cryptocurrency scheme to Europe by the first quarter of next year, and then to other places where crypto is legally accepted. In 2022, the company sold 13,200 automobiles, with prices ranging from over 200,000 euros ($211,000) to up to 2 million euros.
In the first half of this year, 46% of Ferrari’s total car exports came from its largest region, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
“Interest is the same in the U.S. and Europe, we don’t see huge differences,” said Galliera.
China is one of the nations where cryptocurrency use is prohibited.
For the first phase in the United States, Ferrari has partnered with BitPay, one of the major cryptocurrency payment processors, to enable transactions in bitcoin, ether, and USDC, one of the biggest so-called stablecoins. In some areas, Ferrari may employ different payment processors.
If you pay with cryptocurrency, there won’t be any changes to the prices, fees, or surcharges, according to Galliera.
Bitpay will promptly convert cryptocurrency payments into fiat money on behalf of Ferrari’s dealers, shielding them from fluctuations in value.
“This was one of our main goals: avoiding, both our dealers and us, to directly handle cryptocurrencies and being shielded from their wide fluctuations,” Galliera stated.
As the payment processor, BitPay will make sure the virtual currencies are not obtained through illegal means, that they are not intended for use as a means of tax evasion or money laundering, and that they originate from reliable sources.
The bulk of Ferrari’s U.S. dealers have either already agreed to the programme or are about to do so, according to the company’s marketing and commercial chief.
Galliera stated, “I am sure others will join soon.”