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About Grecale

The Grecale is named for a northeasterly wind that sweeps across the Mediterranean, and Maserati needed it to blow hard. Launched in 2022, it is the brand's compact-to-midsize luxury SUV, a direct shot at the Porsche Macan, and the car most likely to bring a newcomer into a Maserati showroom. It carries the trident's styling cues, the oval grille and the three portholes on the fenders, into the most crowded and profitable corner of the premium market, where badges matter and family practicality matters more.

Underneath it shares its basic architecture with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, stretched and reworked, and it is built at the Cassino plant in Italy. The range starts with a mild-hybrid four-cylinder in GT form, and climbs through the Modena trim to the Trofeo, which uses a version of the Nettuno twin-turbo V6 from the MC20 supercar. The Folgore is the all-electric version, with a motor on each axle. Reviewers tend to like the ride, the cabin materials and the Trofeo's urgency, while poking at the infotainment and a price that puts it against very polished German competition.

The Grecale arrived as Maserati was retiring the Levante and Ghibli, which makes it the brand's workhorse and its most important volume product. Its rivals are the Macan in combustion and electric forms, the BMW X3 M and iX3, the Mercedes-AMG GLC and the Audi SQ5, and in Europe the Grecale Folgore also faces a growing wave of electric SUVs from China. Because the Grecale is the Maserati most people encounter, its news tends to mirror the brand's: special editions, pricing moves, sales reports from Stellantis, recalls and the occasional coachbuilt or tuner project. Watch for powertrain changes as Maserati rebalances between combustion and electric, and for how the Grecale fares as the company decides what kind of luxury maker it wants to be.