The big picture
You have to look at the big picture. Not long ago, Maserati launched the MC20, a really fine sports car (driving report: here), which is now also available as the Cielo. The engine, called Nettuno, is a great piece of Italian engineering (in detail: here); the new Grecale also benefits from it. And now the small team from Modena has come up with another one, the Folgore electric drive – and once again the Italians are at the forefront of technology.
Of course, Maserati is at the very top of the Stellantis group and is allowed to be the spearhead. The Italian engineers will not have been completely without support from Paris, as there are a few euros of development funds at stake. But we were recently allowed to visit the new Maserati laboratory on the outskirts of Modena, an inconspicuous but powerful industrial building – with the most modern technical possibilities at the highest level. It was already obvious to us on this visit that great things were happening there, that Maserati’s shadowy existence was a ghost from the past.
So, a completely new platform that can be used for both combustion engines and pure electric cars. BMW has that too, but BMW doesn’t have an 800-volt architecture – which is absolutely essential today and in the future. This not only allows faster charging, the whole system runs more stably. Maserati’s first electric car also comes with a powerful 92.5 kW battery, which will ensure sufficient range. And it can be charged very quickly. So far, only Porsche/Audi and Hyundai/Kia have been technically capable of this – and now Maserati too. Astonishing. And very pleasing. And yes, we can assume that future Stellantis products will also benefit from Italian technology.
At first glance, you might think that Maserati has put this new technology into an old car. But don’t be fooled, there is not a single body part in common with its predecessor built from 2007 to 2019. Great alone is the “cofango” that joins the bonnet and front wings into a single piece. From the front, the family affiliation to the MC20 is also preserved. And anyway: even the “old” GranTurismo was simply a beautiful car, one for the design ages, so the Italians are certainly not wrong in retaining the classic GranTurismo shape to a large extent.
After all, they do the splits. On the one hand, they use the Nettuno V6, 3 litres displacement, twin-turbo, pre-chamber ignition, which produces 485 hp (Modena) or 550 hp (Trofeo) in the new GranTurismo. The evil variant sprints to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds and has a maximum speed of 325 km/h. Extraordinary: For lower consumption, the sports car engine is equipped with cylinder deactivation. And unlike the MC20, it has no dry sump lubrication. On the other hand, both versions have all-wheel drive.
And then there is the Folgore, the pure electric vehicle, of course also with all-wheel drive. Consequently, it has three electric motors, one at the front, two at the rear; the battery is installed in a T-shape in the middle of the vehicle. The system output is 750 hp, the maximum torque a very, very rough 1350 Nm. With this, the coupé races to 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds – and a sensational 325 km/h for an e-car. Also quite positive: the kerb weight of 2260 kilos, this with a weight distribution of 50:50. Porsche can’t do better. By the way, this also applies to the petrol engine, the Trofeo weighs less than 1.8 tonnes.
The GranTurismo Modena and Trofeo will be launched in the second quarter of 2023, the electric car will probably follow after the long Italian summer holidays. By then, the convertible will also have been shown – it will probably be the first purely electric roadster (if Tesla doesn’t hurry up a bit). Of course, there are no prices yet, and the Italians have not yet shown the interior. But Modena is better at such things, i.e. interior design, than anyone else.
We have more Maserati in our archives.
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