Italian carmaker Maserati will be taking on its rivals – Porsche and Tesla – by launching six new cars in the next five years. This line-up will include its long-awaited Alfieri supercar, a small SUV and four all-electric cars. All Maseratis, including the fully electric ones, will use powertrains created by Ferrari.
Leading the line-up expansion would be a halo car, the Alfieri, available in coupé and convertible forms. It will be built on a new aluminium space frame, with a fully modular chassis with three state-of-the-art powertrains, including plug-in hybrid. One will be an all-electric version using a three-motor, all-wheel-drive system offering torque vectoring and it will feature 800V battery technology. According to the company, the car will would be capable of reaching 100kph in around 2.0sec – making it a rival for the hottest Tesla Model S variants. It will also have a top speed of over 299kph.
The Alfieri concept was first shown in 2014; it was powered by a V8 and scheduled for production in 2016. But legislative pressure on emissions and fuel economy meant a V6 powertrain became the favoured option. It’s therefore likely that the Ferrari-built 3.0-litre V6 unit used by the Levante will form the base of the Alfieri hybrid's electrified powertrain.
Maserati’s upcoming new SUV will sit beneath the Levante SUV in Maserati’s range. Buoyed by the success of the Levante, which has helped to grow Maserati’s annual volumes from 30,000 units in 2014 to 50,000 units in 2017, the smaller SUV will seek to chase even larger volumes. The target is for Maserati to reach 1,00,000 cars by 2022.
The brand’s assault on Tesla consists of the launch of four fully electric cars sold under a new ‘Maserati Blue’ moniker. Alongside the aforementioned electric version of the Alfieri and Alfieri Cabrio, there will be electric versions of the next Quattroporte and Levante using the same powertrains.
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