PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Maserati names sedan and SUV

With its long-awaited product offensive just around the corner, Maserati has finally begun to add flesh to the bones of its comeback.

The Italian sportscar maker has three all-new cars driving its ambitious plans to hit 50,000 cars a year by 2015, but it’s not too proud to go back to the future to get there.

It will launch a replacement for the Quattroporte later this year (it will be officially unveiled at next January’s Detroit Motor Show), followed by a smaller, E-Class/5 Series sized sedan and its large SUV in 2014.

But the big all-wheel drive, based around the Jeep Grand Cherokee’s architecture (itself based around the current M-Class Mercedes-Benz architecture), won’t enter production wearing the Kubang nameplate. Instead, Maserati and Alfa Romeo CEO Harald Wester told motoring.com.au, it will arrive as the Levante.

Maserati plumped for the name, he said, because it was an old term for the sun rising in the east, yet it also has another historical note of importance.

“It’s also Levante as in via Emilia Levante in Bologna, where the Maserati brothers, almost a century ago, dreamt of the company that today still bears their name,” Dr Wester said.

“Considering that Levante will be marketed in 2014, the year Maserati will celebrate its centennial, it seems a proper name and, in many ways, a bridge to Maserati’s future.”

Maserati first showed the Kubang in 2003, when it was a concept car developed with Giugiaro. It received acclaim but Maserati struggled to adapt its own architecture to fit beneath the two-tonne machine and could not find another company willing to share or sell an existing architecture, either.

The project seemed stillborn until Maserati refreshed the idea last year, also as the Kubang, yet the name was never destined for production even if the concept was.

Fiat’s purchase of Chrysler included Jeep, and Jeep had inherited the Mercedes M-Class architecture as part of Daimler’s exit strategy when it walked away from its Chrysler ownership. In fact, Jeep’s Grand Cherokee reached the market first with the architecture, which then provided ample space, handling, suspension sophistication and underbonnet space for Maserati’s V8 engine family.

Another part of the Daimler exit strategy was leaving Chrysler with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class architecture, which Maserati will use for its Ghibli sedan.

The Ghibli name has been used twice before in Maserati’s history, and the new Ghibli is expected to spawn a coupe and convertible as well, both of which will sit beneath the current GranTurismo and GranCabrio ranges.

It will also mark the return of Maserati into the world of six-cylinder engines, boasting an entry-level, high-performance V6 as well as the traditional 4.2-litre V8 engine.

Read more Paris Motor Show stories at motoring.com.au

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…