Report: 2021 Ferrari F16X Will Be Ferrari's First Off-Roader, SUV, Crossover, CUV, or Whatever Prancing Horse Designation Fits

Ah, it’s all coming together now. The FF was a trojan horse.

If the 2021 Ferrari F16X comes to fruition, it will be over the proverbial dead bodies of all those Ferrari executives who have denied the possibility of a Ferrari SUV. “We will not play with SUVs,” current CEO Sergio Marchionne said earlier this year in Geneva. “It’s not that we’re not planning an SUV for now — we’re not planning one at all,” former CEO Amadeo Felisa said in Frankfurt in 2015.

But a Ferrari SUV has nevertheless been long rumored, and the rumors were stoked when marketing chief Nicola Boari discussed at length earlier this year the way in which a Ferrari SUV would need to create a new segment.

Indeed, according to CAR, Ferrari’s first foray into the utility vehicle arena will be different: aluminum architecture, suicide doors sans B-pillars, a likely hybrid powertrain, and a price tag of roughly $350,000.

The reasoning behind Ferrari’s apparent decision to build a utility vehicle isn’t unknown. Just look at examples of competing brands (if in fact Ferrari considers any brand a true competitor), such as Porsche, Bentley, and Maserati.

Porsche now generates nearly two-thirds of its U.S. volume with utility vehicles, Cayenne and Macan, and as a result has already sold 27,568 vehicles in the U.S. in just the first-half of 2017. Between 2000 and 2011, Porsche averaged 27,298 U.S. sales per year.

At Bentley, where the Bentayga launched late last summer, sales have nearly doubled in 2017. How? The Bentayga is now Bentley’s best-selling model, outselling the flagship Mulsanne by 11 to 1 in the U.S.

The Maserati Levante likewise arrived as Maserati’s first utility vehicle. Though not yet Maserati’s best seller in America, the Levante has enabled Maserati to report a 30-percent year-over-year sales increase despite a 19-percent drop in sales of the Ghibli, GranTurismo, and Quattroporte this year.

Rolls-Royce sees the need approaching, although the BMW-owned British limo builder wants the Cullinan to be referred to as a high-sided vehicle.

Lamborghini, too, is hopping on the bandwagon. The unfortunately named Urus is expected to double the brand’s volume.

Meanwhile, CAR says, Ferrari will rely upon the F16X to bring the brand up to roughly 16,000 sales five years from now, double the number of sales Ferrari’s supercars managed in 2016.

[Images: Ferrari]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.