There’s a saying about how technology is meant to make our lives easier. The engineers at Ferrari missed the memo when designing basic electrical systems on the $600,000 SF90 supercar. Sure, the SF90’s plug-in hybrid powertrain pumps out 986 horsepower, good for a 0-60mph run in around 2 seconds, even better than Ferrari’s 2.5 second claim, also making it one of the fastest accelerating cars on the planet. But something as simple as a dead battery in the tech-laden supercar, which has gear shift buttons instead of a physical or cable-operated gear shifter, can bring you to your knees.
In a video shared by specialist British repair shop GVE Servicing on social media, popular service tech Supercar Bruce walks us through the steps needed to put a Ferrari SF90 into neutral if the battery is dead. In the video, the technician demonstrates the steps on an SF90 that doesn’t have a dead battery, but use your imagination, and you’ll get the idea.
Step one is to open the hood of the car and retrieve the special two-part tool from the bundled Ferrari toolkit. Step two is to open the engine bay cover and find the tiny, unmarked hole in the engine bay cladding. Step three is to assemble Ferrari’s special neutral tool inside the hole without dropping it. Finally, turn the tool counter clockwise to move the gear selector from Park to Neutral.
A top comment on the video points out how much more difficult the whole procedure is if the SF90’s battery is dead. With a dead battery, the electrically-opening doors, boot, and trunk all need to be manually opened since none of the remote releases will work.
Next, disengage the electronic parking brake manually, a feat that requires its own special tool once again. Then, follow the steps outlined above. Of course, being electronic latches, the doors, boot, and trunk won’t latch shut, needing to be duct taped closed so the car can be safely transported.
The clincher? Ferrari has a specific charging procedure for either of the two onboard batteries to get everything up and running again. Is it worth it, you ask? Well, for owners of the fantastic SF90, that’s probably a question they’ll be asking themselves when they ever suffer a dead battery.
