2012 Maserati Granturismo Mc Sport Line Silver/black Navigation, Carbon Fiber Fl on 2040-cars

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Maserati Grecale announced as new compact crossover set to debut next year

Maserati is on a roll right now, and the Italian brand has just teased another new model: Grecale. Judging by the silhouette (and the information Maserati provided), it’s a smaller SUV than the Levante. Think Porsche Macan or BMW X3 size. Its stubby nose, small body and short overhangs all make it appear much smaller. The name “Grecale” is derived from the name for the north-east wind from the Mediterranean Sea. It seems Â…. fine. It sounds a lot better if you say it with Italian pronunciation, as opposed to an American gre-kale. Naming the Grecale after a wind is normal for Maserati. The Mistral, Ghibli, Levante, Bora, Merak and Khamsin are all named after famous winds, too. One final detail Maserati provided is the most telling of all, though. ItÂ’ll be built at FCAÂ’s Cassino, Italy, plant, which is the current home of Giulia and Stelvio production. The takeaway here is that itÂ’ll be a Stelvio-based crossover riding on the Giorgio platform. From a performance standpoint, that is fantastic. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio is one of the best-driving crossovers in the world, and a Maserati version of this car sounds like a recipe for success. WeÂ’re not sure how much the two will share at this stage, but now that Maserati has a firecracker of a V6 with the Nettuno, it can use its own engine for propulsion. Maserati claims the “Grecale is destined to play a leading role for the brand,” so weÂ’re expecting to be impressed when it debuts. ThereÂ’s more than just the Grecale to look at here, though. Maserati also flashed a silhouette of the next Gran Turismo that is coming in 2021. Most of it is left to our imagination, but weÂ’re happy to see Maserati is revamping its whole lineup. The Grecale is truly the big news of the day, especially since crossovers continue to be a seriously hot commodity. Watch out for a debut next year sometime. Related Video:

Alfa Romeo drops its Giorgio platform as it electrifies for the future

Alfa Romeo, a storied Italian automaker with a tremendous amount of goodwill from the automotive enthusiast crowd, is about to go through yet another major transformation. According to reports, including this one from Automotive News Europe, newly appointed Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told Italian journalists during a roundtable event that all future vehicles from the company would be electrified and built on a new platform known internally as the STLA large-vehicle architecture that will be shared across brands under the Stellantis umbrella. "We are working on the Large platform of Stellantis and we will no longer use the Giorgio,” Imparato said. “We must take advantage of the volumes to take all possible opportunities and bring an EV range to Alfa Romeo, but always with the touch of Alfa Romeo.” That means the well-regarded Giorgio platform that currently underpins Alfa Romeo's only two mainstream products, the Giulia sedan and the Stelvio crossover, will come to an inglorious end. That's a shame. The Giorgio platform didn't just cost Alfa's previous parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles millions of dollars to engineer, it also gave the company a duo of vehicles that arguably drive better than anything else in their segments. Forbes reports that the Giorgio platform won't be entirely abandoned, as it will reportedly be integrated into the rest of the Stellantis portfolio in some way. We don't know exactly what that means, but perhaps it lives on in heavily modified form as the basis of crossovers and SUVs like the upcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee, which Jeep calls a completely new platform but one we believe shares engineering with the Giorgio. We also think it will underpin the upcoming Maserati Grecale. As for the future of Alfa Romeo, the next model coming from the brand is the Tonale, which was delayed by Imparato in order to get its plug-in hybrid powertrain just right. Tonale will use a platform shared with current Jeeps. Rumors suggest an even smaller crossover called the Brennero is on the way, also using a hybrid drivetrain. Past that, we'll just have to wait and see — Imparato says new 5-year and 10-year plans are currently being finalized. In any case, we doubt there will be any significant updates to the Giulia or Stelvio as the brand moves all its resources to its electrified intentions. Related video:

Maserati confirms next Quattroporte, Levante will be EV-only

Maserati's lineup will look a lot different in the second half of the 2020s than it does in 2022. The company confirmed that the Levante and the Quattroporte will be replaced by electric models, and it announced that the Ghibli, its entry-level car, will retire without a successor. "What we see in the market is that there is a transition from sedans to SUVs. There is still a very clear demand for sport sedans, but we believe that we can serve customers even better by substituting the Ghibli and the Quattroporte with just one new sport sedan," explained Francesco Tonon, the Italian company's head of product planning, during a press conference. We don't know when the Ghibli will retire yet. Executives aren't worried about losing sales by axing the Ghibli. The long-awaited Grecale crossover scheduled to make its debut online on March 22 will likely become the best-selling Maserati model with relative ease due to its positioning, and it will neatly fill the void left by the sedan at the bottom of the company's range. And, the next generation of the Quattroporte will carry the sedan torch into the 2020s. "We strongly believe that there is a future for the sedan, but probably not for two sedans. One will be enough to meet demand," Tonon noted. It's too early to provide concrete details about the next-generation Levante and Quattroporte. Both are due out in 2025 at the earliest. However, what's already set in stone is that neither car will be available with a gasoline-burning engine. Both will be all electric, all the time. "We are focused on delivering the best EV and the best electric large SUV. There will be no ICE and no PHEVs; just electric," Tonon said.