The world doesn’t need more reasons to dislike Jeff Bezos or the Ferrari Luce. But Ferrari’s chairman just gave us one anyway, explaining that a conversation with the Amazon founder helped push Maranello to develop its first electric car.

John Elkann told a conference that a conversation with Bezos in 2016 convinced him that Ferrari needed to take the idea of an EV seriously, Reuters reports.

Related: The Aftermarket Already Has Plans For Ferrari’s $639K Luce EV

“I don’t know anything about cars, but I know about innovation,” Elkann recalls Bezos telling him 10 years before Ferrari unveiled the production Luce. “And I think that you really need to think hard about electric vehicles.”

Ferrari has produced some controversial cars in the past, including the 1974 Dino 308GT4, whose fashionably wedgy Bertone styling was a radical break from the swoopy Pininfarina lines of the brand’s earlier cars. And the 2012 FF shooting brake also got some flack for its awkward styling.

But no Ferrari has ever got fans worked up for the wrong reason like the Luce. Going electric was always going to be a much more controversial move for a brand like Ferrari than for a company like Kia, or even Porsche. But maybe Ferrari could have escaped much of the criticism if the Luce didn’t look like it does.

Apple Influences

Both the exterior and interior design of the Luce were handled by LoveFrom, whose team includes former Apple designer Jony Ive. And while the interior has drawn praise for its Apple-like high quality materials and tactile switchgear, the body itself looks kind of dumpy.

“We weren’t in any way intending to do a controversial Ferrari,” Elkann told conference guests. “What is important is how much that touches your conviction. What it did is that it made our conviction very strong.”

Goes Like A Ferrari

Ferrari always intended the Luce to appeal to a very different audience than the one buying its other cars. But even if it looks nothing like most gearheads’ idea of a Ferrari, the Luce at least goes like one. It has four motors that collectively make 1,035 hp (772 kW / 1,050 PS), and can hit 62 mph (100 kmh) in just 2.5 seconds. A massive 122 kWh battery gives an unimpressive 329 mile (530 km) range.

It’s also priced like a true Ferrari. The Luce costs €550,000 in Europe, and while US prices have yet to be revealed, they’re likely to be in the $640,000 range.

Ferrari, Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India), GODL-India

Heading into Monterey Car Week, the first production-spec Ferrari Luce carried an estimate of $1.1 million, with room to climb a little past that if the room got excited. The room got more than excited. Saturday’s hammer landed at $40,000,000, and no, that isn’t a stray digit or a typo that slipped past an editor.

The Man Who Wrote The Check

The buyer turned out to be Dr. Herbert Wertheim, affectionately known as Dr. Herbie, the 87-year-old billionaire optometrist and inventor who Forbes said “built a fortune over five decades of investing in stocks,” hailing him as “the greatest investor you’ve never heard of.”

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Wertheim was born in Philadelphia in 1939 to working-class parents who moved to Florida and lived above a bakery, per Supercarsforsale on Instagram. In 1969 he established that UV light causes cataracts, then invented the UV-absorbing dye for plastic lenses. His company, Brain Power Inc., became the world’s largest maker of optical tints, and he holds more than 100 patents. From 1970 the profits went into the market, into Apple and Microsoft at their IPOs, and eventually into the largest individual stake in Heico. Which is how $40 million for a car becomes a rounding error in your bank account.

Now, you may be wondering why anyone would pay this much money for an EV that has been kicked around as much as the Luce. The answer starts with where the money goes. All of the funds raised by the auction benefit The Ferrari Foundation, a recognized 501(c)(3) public charity.

Read: Ferrari Boss Was Thrilled When Fans Trashed The $640K Luce

What this means is that the winning bidder has effectively written a $40 million check to charity and can claim the gap between the Luce’s fair market value, presumably somewhere near its $640,000 MSRP, and the final price as a tax write-off. Call it $10 million to $15 million in savings on a $40 million outlay, which leaves him around $25 million lighter than he started.

Wertheim Has Done This Before

RM Sotheby’s

None of this is new to him. Wertheim was the buyer when Ferrari ran the same charity formula on a one-off Daytona SP3 at Monterey last year, and he took that one home for $26 million. The difference is what happens next. Standard Daytona SP3 values are climbing hard, with one selling this past weekend for $17.8 million, so give it long enough and the $26 million car might actually be a $26 million car. The Luce is unlikely to ever see its number again.

RM Sotheby’s

Is there actually anything special about this particular Luce? Yes, there is. For starters, it is painted in a bespoke shade of white known as Madreperla Semi-Gloss, which reflects green and violet depending on the viewing angle and light. The EV also sits on matching white wheels.

Ferrari’s Tailor Made department also worked extensively on the EV’s interior, using special Le Mans metallic leather from carefully selected Swiss hides, and also tinted white to match the outside.