Maserati charges ahead with its first attempt in electrification

Maserati held a global debut of its Ghibli Hybrid, the Trident brand’s first attempt at electrification, signalling its direction in making its vehicles greener in the years to come. Recently, it also announced that it had a new powerplant for its MC20 super sports car. Its Ghibli sedan was launched in 2013 and over 100,000 units already produced. Developed by Maserati Innovation Lab of Modena, the Ghibli Hybrid will be produced from its Avvocato Giovanni Agnelli plant in historic Turin.

 

It seems inevitable that even such an artisan and performance-oriented brand like Maserati to enter the world of electrification but it does it without altering the brand’s core philosophy and values. Maserati made sure it purrs and growls like a thoroughbred Maserati by retaining its distinctive exhaust notes.

From the outside, the Ghibli Hybrid sports a new exterior and interior restyling, but is still distinctively a Ghibli. Penned and developed by the Centro Stile Maserati, it uses the blue colour accent to represent and identifying colorway for its vehicles with hybrid technology.  The exterior is accented with a distinctive blue color on the side air ducts that look like inverted boomerangs gives a subtle indication that it is a hybrid model. The blue color accent is also applied on the brake calipers, the thunderbolt in the oval logo on the rear pillar. Inside, the logo embroidery also uses the blue color threads on the leather seats.  The new Ghibli Hybrid also sports a new front grille, with bars redesigned to represent a tuning fork, a musical device that emits a sound of extreme purity, alluding to the character of the Trident symbol itself.  Other exterior differences and changes can also be seen at the rear of the car, it comes with restyled light clusters with a boomerang-like profile inspired by the 3200 GT and the Alfieri concept car.

 

For its first attempt at electrification, Maserati decided on a hybrid solution which focuses on improving performance at the same time cutting on emissions and making big improvements on fuel economy.  This hybrid technology uses kinetic energy as the car accumulates when in motion, recovering it and transforming it into electricity during deceleration and braking, and storing it in a battery. And with all this technology, it still retains a distinctive exhaust note that is expected from a Maserati.

Using innovative technology, it combines a 4-cylinder turbocharged 2-liter internal combustion engine with a 48-volt alternator and an additional electric supercharger (e-Booster), supported by a battery. Maserati says that this solution is unique in its segment, and is the first in a new generation of powertrains, with the perfect trade-off between performance, efficiency and driving pleasure. The battery is mounted in the rear of the car, with benefits in terms of improved weight distribution. This hybrid version also weighs about 80 kg less than the Ghibli Diesel variant.

The result is a muscular maximum power output of 330 hp and torque of 450 Nm delivered from just 1,500 rpm. It can propel the new Ghibli Hybrid to a top speed of 255 km/h and acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds.

In keeping up with the times, Ghibli Hybrid also marks the debut of the new Maserati Connect program,  allowing seamless connection with the car. As well as updating the software packages, the system performs checks on the car and monitors the Safety Security services in emergencies. It also uses the latest generation Maserati Intelligent Assistant multimedia system from Android Automotive. The software features an innovative User Experience fully customisable to the driver’s personal preferences. The multimedia system’s HD screen, with new graphics, more user-friendly and without surrounds, is increased in size from 8”4 to 10”1.