The Maserati Levante will appeal to younger buyers and women in particular, according to Maserati’s CEO, Harald Wester. Speaking to Drive, Wester explained that the brand needed to broaden its buyer base.
Based on his observation, the CEO noted that there are currently many women driving SUVs. “I’m just watching. If you just drive along in Europe and the United States and China, you see many women drive these cars. Many,” he said. He believes that design is one of the main driving factors behind this.
“I don’t know why females drive these cars but I have an idea. If you talk to the SUV customers, they will give you five rationales from towing capacity, passenger seating; all this rationale stuff. But at the end of the day, the design – if they want it, they’ll fall in love with the machine for whatever reason,” Wester explained.
Meanwhile, Wester reaffirmed his confidence that the Levante will be the brand’s top product in terms of sales. As to whether Maserati will bring about another SUV, Wester left the door open on the idea. But, he made it clear that the focus is currently not on another SUV.
“The question is not whether we will do a second or third SUV or otherwise, which is nothing that we need to discuss right now, the question is ‘how will the technical base of our customers evolve’,” the CEO said.
The Levante will be offered with a 275 hp/600 Nm turbodiesel 3.0 litre V6 and a petrol option, which is a 3.0 litre twin-turbo V6 with two outputs: 350 hp/500 Nm or a higher 430 hp/580 Nm. All three are mated to a ZF AT8-HP70 eight-speed automatic transmission with Q4 all-wheel drive system and a limited slip differential.
It will feature a host of safety tech including blind spot alert, lane departure warning, forward collision warning and more. Apart from that, it’s also expected to feature some form of semi-autonomous driving technology as revealed by Wester previously.
GALLERY: Maserati Levante
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Our Proton Perdana will appeal to pondans and bapuks. John has orderd one.
And toyotas appeal to those who want early afterlife and dun mind ‘sharing’ this with friends, relatives, loved ones and oso innocent pipu.
It doesnt seems like a proper maserati, it seems too “normal” with hyundai tucson kind of look. Anyone?
Any car produce shouldn’t be representing or categorised at any gender base.If any male attracted on this gender based design,then Maserati would lose a potential buyer that afford to own one.Pay so much for himself but neighbor say for wife birthday?
It will end up like porsche cayenne with no RV after 5 to 7 years. Just wait and buy recond after 8 year. Probably less than 100k for normal spec.
Smart move by Maser. A bit overdue in fact.Cayenne’s and Macan’s lessons have been slowly but properly absorbed. Product looks nice enough anyway – especially the interior. Priced right should sell well what with crossovers being the flavour of the moment.
Put some Hello Kitty stickers, sure will up female attraction factor by 5HP
Front looks like Peugoet, back looks like Mitsu ASX
Anyone sees the same thing?
-BigBalls-
To attract female customers this SUV must have mirrors everywhere and special tissue compartment next to driver seat