Ferrari has announced plans to enter the electric car segment which will position the Italian automaker as a future competitor to Tesla.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters that the Italian automaker will be making a battery-powered supercar.

"If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first. People are amazed by what Tesla did with a supercar: I'm not trying to minimize what Elon [Musk, Tesla CEO] did but I think it's doable by all of us," he said, as reported by Bloomberg.

A Ferrari electric supercar is likely still a long way off. In the meantime, Marchionne said that the Italian automaker is already in the process of utilizing hybrid technology for its vehicles. As soon as they are able to develop hybrid cars, it will not be that big of a jump for them to start building electric vehicles. "Going from there to an electric is easy," the Ferrari executive said.

Apart from an electric supercar, Marchionne also announced Ferrari's plans to release its first SUV, which he claimed will be the fastest in the segment, by late 2019 or early 2020.

Not much is known about Ferrari's upcoming SUV but it seems that the development process has already commenced. Marchionne revealed that he had seen mockups of the vehicle's body recently. While he did not reveal specific details, the executive did say that it looked good.

Ferrari's plans for an electric supercar and SUV are in stark contrast to Marchionne's remarks a couple of years ago, wherein he dismissed SUVs and alternative engines — both of which are seeing immense popularity these days.

Though Ferrari purists feel strongly about a prancing horse-badged vehicle without an internal combustion engine or on a high-riding utility vehicle, Marchionne has conceded that these seem to be inevitabilities. However, they will have to tread carefully to maintain the Ferrari spirit.

"It will look like what a Ferrari utility vehicle needs to look like. But it has to drive like a Ferrari," he further said about the upcoming SUV.