2010 Maserati Quattroporte Base Sedan 4-door 4.2l on 2040-cars

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Fiat Chrysler open to mergers, and PSA is looking for one

GENEVA — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is open to pursuing alliances and merger opportunities if they make sense, but a sale of its luxury brand Maserati is not an option, Chief Executive Mike Manley said on Tuesday. "We have a strong independent future, but if there is a partnership, a relationship or a merger which strengthens that future, I will look at that," Manley told reporters at the Geneva Motor Show. Asked whether he would consider selling Maserati to China's Geely Automobile Holdings, as suggested by recent media reports, Manley said: "Maserati is one of our really beautiful brands and it has an incredibly bright future. ... No." FCA is often cited as a possible merger candidate. Bloomberg said this week that the Italian-American carmaker was attractive to France's PSA Group given its exposure to the U.S. market and its popular Jeep brand. The Detroit News' headline on the situation Friday read, "Fiat Chrysler CEO open to a deal as PSA circles" and stated that Manley's open-to-just-about-anything comments were aimed directly at PSA. Bloomberg said talks between the two were preliminary and said PSA chief Carlos Tavares has also contemplated mergers with General Motors or Jaguar Land Rover, which is losing money for Indian owner Tata. PSA has enjoyed a decade of turnaround and has $10.2 billion in net cash available. The maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS, acquired Opel and Vauxhall in 2017 and made them almost instantly profitable. Manley, who took over after the death of Sergio Marchionne, said he currently had no news on possible deals. Manley also said the world's seventh-largest carmaker, which is lagging rivals in developing hybrid and electric vehicles, would take the least costly approach to comply with increasingly more stringent European emissions regulations. "There are three options. You can sell enough electrified vehicles to balance your fleet. Two: You can be part of a pooling scheme. Three is to pay the fines," he said. "I don't see a scenario when (carmakers) continue to subsidize technologies ... indefinitely." The carmaker had said last June it would invest 9 billion euros ($10.19 billion) over the next five years to introduce hybrid and electric cars across all regions to be fully compliant with emissions regulations. Asked about a 5-billion-euro investment plan for Italy FCA announced in November but then put under review, Manley said the plan had been confirmed as originally presented.

Maserati Tridente by Vita Power First, Um, Cruise Review: Today on Aquablog

LAKE MAGGIORE, Italy — MaseratiÂ’s Trident logo gets three-pronged inspiration from the famous fountain of Neptune in Bologna, where the automaker got its start in 1914 before packing up and moving to Modena. And a symbol that denotes mastery over the water is appropriate for the all-electric motorboat that floats us in style around ItalyÂ’s Lake Maggiore. Beckoning dockside, the Tridente is a 10.5-meter superyacht tender, the boat that takes you to a bigger boat. But itÂ’s also fine for swanky solo cruises on lakes or ocean coasts, with a roughly 50- to 70-kilometer range (31 to 43 miles). The design collaboration between Maserati and Vita Power, a marine tech company founded in 2017, features a fast DC charging system that Vita claims as an industry first. To make that practical, Vita has been creating charging infrastructure in key locales, including along the French Riviera, San Francisco Bay, New York and a plug here in Lake Maggiore, about an hour north of Milan. We hop aboard the Tridente, the aforementioned logo emblazoned on a bow deck formed from ribbed composite. The molto bene motorboat features a carbon-fiber hull that helps hold a total weight around 5 tons. As with automobiles, thatÂ’s decisively more mass than a comparable ICE-powered boat, thanks to a 250-kilowatt-hour battery pack thatÂ’s big enough to make a Hummer EV blush. We depart the dock and head for Isola Bella, an island that floats a 17th-century palazzo — a summer home for the aristocratic House of Borromeo, which produced several cardinals and one pope — and a baroque Italian garden of over-the-top splendor. I take a spot on a wide, comfy daybed near the stern, and experience the key talking point of any electric watercraft: A welcome lack of diesel or gasoline stink wafting over passengers — notoriously amplified should one experience seasickness — and the ability to hold a conversation without shouting over an ear-rending marine ICE powertrain. Of course, that also means no rainbow petroleum slicks floating in your wake and despoiling the marine environment. Our pilot makes sure IÂ’m hanging on before he punches the throttle, backed by a pair of generous screens that display everything from nav charts to Netflix. Despite its weight, the Tridente proves a punchy beast. A twin-prop arrangement and proprietary control software allows anywhere from 100 to 600 horsepower.

Maserati bringing new sports car concept to Geneva?

Maserati is in the midst of a major product overhaul. The Quattroporte was recently redone, the Ghibli is a fresh new model and the Levante crossover is still in the pipeline. But what about its two-door line? Surely Maserati hasn't forgotten about those, right?
Not according to the latest gossip, it hasn't. Word has it that in celebration of its centenary this year, the Trident marque is preparing a new sports car concept to unveil at the Geneva Motor Show. Apparently smaller than the aging GranTurismo, the new concept is said to take aim at the Jaguar F-Type - not to mention the Porsche 911.
According to GTSpirit, the concept could pack the Modenese automaker's new twin-turbo V6 or V8 engines, but no matter how many cylinders, it's understood we're likely looking at a front-engine/rear-drive layout and an automatic transmission.