SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Maserati Ghibli unmasked

Maserati has taken the wraps off its long-awaited baby-Quattroporte, the all-new Ghibli sedan, ahead of its world debut at Auto Shanghai 2013 in China on April 19.

Although it doesn’t look quite as low-slung or long-nosed as whatever was under the blue rug in last week’s teaser image, the Italian brand’s answer to the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class emerges with aggressive new looks and an equally striking interior.

Punctuated by fearsome upside-down-boomerang shaped headlights with LED accents, burly front and rear quarter panels and prominent side sculpting, the Ghibli pictured here also wears big 21-inch alloys with Pirelli rubber and big perforated brake discs with six-piston calipers up front.

All four red calipers and the bootlid garnish wear the Maserati name and the famed trident badge appears in traditional fashion on the C-pillars, all four wheel centres and twice at the front.

The distinctive four-door design is echoed by sumptuous interior styling highlighted by blue-hued Maserati-branded TFT screens in the instrument panel and centre stack (which also wears the Ghibli badge), carbon-fibre centre console finish and double-stitched red Poltrona Frau leather for the seats, doors and dash as standard.

Quad exhaust outlets and a ‘Q4’ moniker at the rear reveal this to be an all-wheel drive version powered by the more powerful of two turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engines derived from the 390kW/650Nm twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8 that powers the new Quattroporte due here in September.

The Ghibli will arrive in Australia around six months later in February 2014, powered initially by low- and high-output versions of the twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6, which will offer up to 301kW and 550Nm of torque in the Quattroporte here from November.

Maserati has now confirmed the large rear-drive sports sedan, its first E-segment model, will also be its first diesel, powered by another 3.0-litre V6 – this time a VM Motori oil-burner that also powers sister brand Jeep’s Grand Cherokee.

While the same diesel is unlikely to be available in the Quattroporte here and all-wheel drive models of both new models won't be built in right-hand drive, expect the Ghibli diesel to eventually open the range here in the low $100,000s.

From its local launch next year, Ghibli pricing will start well under $150,000 in line with Mercedes’ facelifted E 400, which packs an architecturally similar 245kW/480Nm twin-turbo 3.0-litre petrol V6 and replaces both the E 350 V6 and E 500 V8 at $129,900.

Eventually, the Quattroporte's new twin-turbo V8 will also slot into a range-topping Ghibli, which will be a direct rival for the BMW M5 and Mercedes E 63 AMG, priced around $200,000.

As in Maserati’s new four-door flagship, all Ghiblis will come standard with a new eight-speed automatic transmission with steering wheel paddle shifters.

The ZF-supplied gearbox and downsized engines will make the Ghibli the most efficient Maserati, even if it rides on a shortened Quattroporte platform with firmer suspension and a variable damping system.

Reviving a nameplate not produced since 1997, the Ghibli will be central to Maserati’s goal to sell 50,000 cars per annum by 2015 – up from 6288 last year.

Annual production of between 10,000 and 15,000 will take place alongside the Quattroporte at the ex-Bertone plant in Grugliasco outside Turin, but could eventually account for half of all Maserati sales.

Both big sedans were designed alongside each other under the direction of Maserati design chief Marco Tencone and Pininfarina’s former head of design, Lorenzo Ramaciotti, who now heads up Fiat Group design.

The Levante SUV will be Maserati’s other key volume model (and should also become its top-seller Down Under) when it arrives in 2015, the Modena car-maker’s centenary year.

In Australia, the plan is for 1500 annual Maserati sales by 2016 (up from just 124 last year), 45 per cent of which are expected to be Levantes and 40 per cent of which are forecast to be Ghiblis.

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