Maser’s Macan gets 523bhp V6
Crucial Grecale SUV will arrive this year in three petrol guises, featuring MC20 tech
The Grecale is Maserati’s most strategically important and potentially best-selling model in decades. The new SUV will play a fundamental role in the Italian firm’s rapid transition to electrification and provides it with a long-awaited rival to the Porsche Macan.
Revealed shortly after Maserati’s parent company, Stellantis, announced that the brand – along with Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia – will launch only electric cars from 2025, the Grecale has been engineered to accommodate pure-combustion, hybrid and fully electric drivetrains. This will lend it a similar flexibility of purpose to its German rival, itself due a pure-ev in 2023.
Expected on sale in June from around £60,000, the Grecale sits below the Levante in Maserati’s line-up and will be joined in dealerships by the secondgeneration Granturismo sports car, which will also be offered with an electric drivetrain, as well as all-new versions of the Quattroporte and Levante due in the coming years, each with a full spread of drivetrain options.
POWERTRAINS
It will be available from launch with three petrol engine options: two variants of the 3.0-litre Nettuno V6 first used by the MC20 supercar for the mid-rung Modena and top-spec Trofeo, and a four-cylinder mild hybrid for the entry-level Grecale GT.
The V6 uses the same pre-chamber combustion tech as the full-fat MC20 version, which aims to boost both performance and efficiency, but it has been modified in line with its more mainstream billing. It has a wet rather than dry oil sump, for example, and it can deactivate the right cylinder bank at a cruise for reduced consumption. This function necessitated a “complete redesign” in order to accommodate collapsible tappets, which allow the valvetrain on that side of the engine to be deactivated independently.
In the Modena, the V6 is tuned to give 325bhp and 332lb ft for a 0-62mph time of 5.3sec. The Trofeo bumps those figures to 523bhp and 457lb ft to shave the sprint time to just 3.8sec – quicker than
the BMW X3 M Competition.
The mild-hybrid GT has 296bhp and 332lb ft from a twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre unit mated to a belt-integrated starter-generator and a 48V battery in the boot. Maserati claims a 0-62mph time of 5.6sec, 30.7-32.5mpg on the WLTP combined cycle and an engine note “that retains the usual characteristics of any other Trident-brand car”.
All engines send their reserves through an eightspeed ZF automatic gearbox to both axles, with a self-locking limited-slip differential fitted to the rear of the Modena and Trofeo, and optional on the GT.
CHASSIS
The Grecale is 4846mm long, 1670mm tall and 2163mm wide, with a wheelbase of 2901mm. That makes it a similar size to Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio SUV – no coincidence, given it fundamentally shares that car’s Giorgio underpinnings.
Optional air suspension gives six levels of adjustment over a 65mm height range and a new vehicle dynamic control module serves as “a topranking orchestral conductor” for all dynamic elements of the chassis. Maserati says this system’s predictive intervention into suspension movements differs according to the driving mode (Comfort, GT, Sport, Race or Off-road) and gives “levels of performance and integration that could not have been achieved in the older architecture”.
Ventilated brake discs with four-piston calipers are standard but higher-spec cars get dual-cast perforated items with six-piston calipers at the front and four-pots at the rear.
STYLING
The Grecale’s relationship with the larger Levante is obvious, but the influence of the new MC20 is apparent in its “low and imposing grille” and
its silhouette, which “takes on a vertical rather than a horizontal aspect”.
The rear end, meanwhile, is characterised by new boomerang-shaped light designs, said to be inspired by the 3200 GT sports coupé from 1998, and a new-look exhaust. The performance-minded Modena and Trofeo variants are marked out by a rear track widened by 34mm over the standard Grecale GT, as well as bespoke bumpers and chrome detailing on the front grille.
INTERIOR
The cabin represents a radical departure from existing Maserati models, chiefly in the adoption of a new four-screen set-up that brings enhanced digital functionality and allows for a more minimalist, switchgear-light design.
The driver display is digital as standard and there’s a 12.3in central infotainment screen, a 8.8in touchpad for the climate control and a new digital clock mounted prominently at the top of the dashboard.
Materials and colour schemes differ according to trim level. The GT adopts a more minimalist look and warm colours, the Modena features bespoke embroidery, trim elements and stitching, and the Trofeo has exposed carbonfibre panels, perforated leather seats and contrasting stitching.
❝ The Trofeo will have 457lb ft and shaves 0-62mph to just 3.8sec ❞