Half a million can have an Italian thoroughbred sports medium SUV, and this product also hangs a trident logo, can you bear it?
It had been years since Ghibli that I hadn't heard a big news from Maserati. Over the years, although Maserati still took out the SUPERCAR MC20 full of "keyboard value", it is still far from the daily life of ordinary people.
But when Maserati Grecale officially made its global debut and locked competitors in the Porsche Macan and BMW X3, it instantly triggered the idea that many young people wanted to be Aquaman. Because the Grecalle will be the cheapest Martha ever, not one!
Although Maserati is a relatively niche brand in the global luxury car field, it does not mean that it does not understand the preferences of Chinese consumers for luxury cars. Once upon a time, Maserati was on top, and the cheapest cars were GT that sold for more than two million. With the launch of the Levante and Ghibli models, the threshold of Maserati has suddenly been reduced by hundreds of thousands! It is precisely for this reason that Maserati has become the top luxury brand that understands Chinese consumers the most, even in the hearts of many car lovers, Maserati is no longer "top-notch".
After many years, when Maserati regains its old business, it is still not difficult to see that their need for face is very in place. Although the Grecale is the "smallest only" style in the Martha family. However, the front face design is inherited from the supercar MC20, the side style is inherited from the big brother Levante, and the classic three-hole shark gills are not absent, and the amount of "sha" is simply not too much.
Exterior design, Grecale is absolutely successful, which will become its biggest chip to challenge the domestic luxury mid-size SUV market! As for the brand power, although Maserati has become the object of ridicule by many people in recent years, if the trident is really placed in front of the keyboard man, I think between the BBA and Martha, they will still choose the latter. As for The Macan, Grecale wants to win, and production capacity will probably be the most important factor in determining the duel between them!
Interior, people's biggest complaint about the previous two "people-friendly" Martha is the workmanship problem. On the Gregare, the newly designed interior style takes into account the sense of luxury and technology, and the three-screen interaction mode is in line with the mainstream of the times, which looks quite international. It is worth mentioning that this time the domestic sales of Grecale will jointly develop a car machine system with Tencent, and it is believed that there will be a good performance in localization navigation and voice functions.
As one of the cheapest Maseratis, people naturally care about the mechanical quality of the Gregale.
That's right, Grecale is using the Giorgio rear and full-wheel drive architecture that FCA Group invested heavily in 2014. Under this platform, Aro Giulia and Stelvio can be said to be quite representative works, although the sales are mediocre, but this does not hide the essence of the Italian sports under this platform. So, there's reason to believe that The Grecale, born out of the platform, will have a fairly purely sporty performance.
However, the platform is also a platform, and the platform is also defeated. Friends familiar with FCA Group should know that Giorgio was designed and developed in 2014 to revive Alfa Romeo. Due to the early development time, the architecture's ability to expand electrification is relatively weak. In addition, the giorgio platform's high cost makes it unable to produce volume models, which has become a burden for FCA Group.
Of course, for Gregare, the Giorgio platform brings more power and excellent control, which are what consumers who choose Gregare need. In addition, in the future, FCA Group will completely abandon the Giorgio platform in favor of the New STLA large-scale architecture of the Stellantis Group, and in the future Maserati's new cars will also use this new platform. Therefore, Grecale's platform architecture is not old, but it should soon be replaced in the future, which is not good news for potential buyers.
In the performance section, Grecale will launch three versions: GT, Modena, and Trofeo. The GT and Modena will be equipped with a 2.0T+48V mixing system, which will be matched with an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. Among them, the GT as an entry-level model, the maximum engine power of 221Kw, 100 km acceleration time of 5.6 seconds, while the Modena version of the engine power is more powerful, reaching 243Kw, 100 km acceleration time is only 5.3 seconds.
It is worth mentioning that from the feedback of the previous overseas media test drive, although this is not the first time that Maserati has used a four-cylinder engine, on the Gregale, the actual output performance of this 2.0T powertrain is very good, and even gives the evaluation that this is the most "clean" Maserati in terms of exhaust sound and engine shape, which is very interesting. On the performance-highlighting version of Trofeo, the 3.0T twin-turbo engine will bring 390Kw, 620Nm performance output, and the acceleration time of 100 kilometers is only 3.8 seconds, even surpassing the Porsche Macan GTS.
Write at the end
In recent years, Maserati's performance in China has deteriorated, due to nothing more than product discontinuation and single model. As a former ultra-luxury brand, if you want to regain your glory, this responsibility is probably all on Grecalle. This also means that Maserati's pricing of Grecale will be directly related to the future of the platform. Combined with the current situation, if the starting price of the Gregare is higher than that of The Macan, then the chances left for it in the market will be very slim.