Maserati Levante ‘Hybrid’ revealed

Maserati’s announced future is heavily electrified and its present is very obviously not electrified, and somewhere in the middle comes the 2021 Maserati Levante Hybrid.

But the first hybrid version of the Italian car-maker’s large SUV sits far, far closer to the ‘not electrified’ end of the Maserati pastiche than the EV future the Stellantis luxury brand has mapped out.

Instead of a Toyota Prius-style petrol/electric hybrid system or a plug-in hybrid set-up, Maserati’s first ‘hybrid’ powertrain, as seen in the Ghibli sedan simply mates a four-cylinder petrol engine with a 48-volt integrated starter-generator.

It’s what every other car-maker classifies as a ‘mild-hybrid’, but that’s enough hybridisation for Maserati right now and it’s even enough to lead to the death of the Levante turbo-diesel.

The upside for Australian Maserati fans is that the Levante Hybrid’s petrol motor will come with a particulate filter for cleaner exhaust emissions.

The start-of-production date for Australia’s cars will be in July this year, so a fourth-quarter arrival in local showrooms seems likely, though timing and pricing haven’t yet been confirmed.

Identical to the Ghibli Hybrid’s powertrain in all bar its application tweaks, the Levante Hybrid powertrain simply gives the 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine a 9kW boost from the BSG (Belt Starter Generator) whenever it needs help.

It’s not as though Maserati is hiding this or, in any way other than its ‘Hybrid’ name, pushing it to be something it isn’t.

But it falls short of full or plug-in hybrid tech for plenty of reasons. Officially, the company opted for mild-hybrid because it’s a struggle to make HEVs and PHEVs deliver the throttle response expected of a Maserati.

Unofficially, it’s because none of its current cars were pre-engineered for it.

Everything Maserati said about the Ghibli Hybrid has been said again about the Levante Hybrid. It fits with the Maserati ethos. It has huge emissions benefits. It has all the strength of a V6.

While it hasn’t clarified the official consumption figures, Maserati claims it will be 18 per cent lower than the 3.0-litre turbo-petrol V6, but only three per cent better than the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 it unofficially replaces.

It will still gulp fuel at around 10L/100km, but Maserati says it will be good for a six-second sprint to 100km/h and a top speed of 240km/h.

The combined powertrain is claimed to deliver 245kW of power and 550Nm of torque (90 per cent of which is there from 1750rpm).

The upside is that the 2090kg Levante Hybrid saves more than 100kg over the diesel (and an unquantified figure over the V6 biturbo), and the movement of the BSG’s battery into the boot floor improves the weight distribution to 50:50.

The Maserati Levante Hybrid remains all-wheel drive, with the extra performance from the eBooster and the BSG fed through a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission.

Nor are there any synthesizers or through-the-speakers sounds to compensate for the reduced capacity, so the exhaust and engine notes will be pure 2.0-litre four-cylinder sounds.

The all-wheel drive Q4 system defaults to giving 100 per cent of the powertrain’s torque to the rear wheels. It only shifts torque forward when the rear wheels begin to slip, and it can send up to half of the engine’s urge to the front axle.

The air suspension system automatically changes the Levante Hybrid’s ride height by 75mm while it’s rolling. It lowers the ride height by 45mm to reduce fuel consumption and drag on highways, then returns to the normal height when the speed drops below 24km/h.

The BSG system of the Maserati Levante Hybrid is similar to what Mercedes-Benz calls its ISG (Integrated Starter Generator).

It uses a belt drive attached to the BSG itself, which serves the Levante Hybrid as both the starter motor and an alternator.

The BSG is the part of the system that gobbles up energy under braking and deceleration, sending it to the battery in the boot floor.

It deploys that energy when needed either through the BSG unit, or what Maserati calls an eBooster (which is an electric compressor, as used by Audi’s SQ7).

There’s also a DC/DC converter and the lithium-ion battery itself.

The Levante Hybrid has four driving modes – Normal, Sport, Off-Road and Ice – with both the eBooster and the BSG boosting the 2.0-litre four in Sport mode.

Initially all Maserati Levante Hybrids will come in GT trim, so expect chrome on the front bumper, blue features on the seats and floor mats, new ‘boomerang’ homage LED tail-lights and 19-inch alloy wheels.

There will also be the latest generation of operating system for the interior and infotainment systems, with a new 8.4-inch central touch-screen.

The instrument cluster is curiously analogue in these days of full digital screens, with two dials split by a 7.0-inch TFT display.

With the BSM system’s battery in the boot floor, the Levante Hybrid retains its full luggage capacity of 580 litres, or 1625 litres with the rear seats folded down.

Direct rivals will include the hybrid Lexus RX 450h, the plug-in hybrid BMW xDrive 45e and the mild-hybrid Audi Q7 50 TDI and Mercedes-AMG GLE 53.