Maserati is sending out invitations for a November debut for its all-new SUV, the Grecale, which is based on Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio, and set to impress with a new, luxurious take on the mid-sized SUV market.
Officially, the Grecale will be unveiled to the world on November 16, in Italy’s northern city of Milan, with the company stating that the Grecale name can be traced back to “a wind that turns the everyday into something exceptional” and one that will “blow across the Maserati range”.
While Maserati has remained impressively tight-lipped ahead of the Grecale’s debut, we have seen a limited number of spy shots during the development phase, as well as confirmations that production will take place at Fiat-Chrysler’s Cassino facility, where the Giulia and Stelvio are produced.
It seems very likely the mid-size SUV will ride on FCA’s Giorgio platform, shared with the Giulia, Stelvio and even the Jeep Cherokee, featuring a range of powertrain options across variants.
The most likely powerplant for the Grecale would be FCA’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 unit that produces 316kW/580Nm, which powers existing Levante, Quattroporte and Ghibli models. Maserati has positioned the Grecale with a byline of “everyday exceptional”, which makes us think a meaty powertrain is absolutely essential in hitting this brief.
While wind might seem like an usual basis for a luxury SUV’s name, Maserati actually has a long-standing tradition of naming its vehicles after some world-famous weather patterns, with the 1963 Mistral kicking off the trend, followed by the Khamsin, Bora, Ghibli and 2016 introduction of the company’s first SUV, the Levante.
Further than that, we’ll have to wait for the Grecale’s official debut in mid-November to see how Maserati plans on taking the fight to its main competitors like the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Jaguar F-PACE, and Porsche Macan.
