Maserati won’t go smaller than Ghibli, Levante – report

The Maserati Ghibli sedan and Levante SUV are as small as the Italian automaker will go, according to an Autocar report. This essentially puts paid to rumours of future Maseratis said to sit below the most junior sedan and SUV in the marque’s line-up, with an eye on staying well within the luxury segment.

“You don’t want to go down. You want to go up,” said Maserati boss Harald Wester, referring to the tendency for bigger, more luxurious models to bring greater profit margins to a brand, whilst steering clear of being perceived as becoming more mass-market, he was quoted as saying.

The Italian marque is adamant that it will stay the course away from employing fully electric powertrains, albeit with some concession to adopting partial electrification. A brave move, considering that its sales were down 26% year-on-year for the third quarter of 2018, by which time just 26,400 of its vehicles had been shipped. Its five-year plan laid out June last year included the launch of the Alfieri coupe, which at the time also called for all-new versions of the Qauttroporte, Ghibli and Levante.

With the aforementioned smaller new models called off, the limelight will be cast on the Alfieri, which was first revealed as a concept back in 2014, and with a trimmed powertrain range now that the firm has ruled out fully electric versions. At present, Maserati’s range is powered by twin-turbo V6 and V8 engines manufactured by Ferrari. By 2022, Maserati will see the introduction two new models.

GALLERY: Maserati Ghibli

GALLERY: Maserati Levante

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