SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Maserati teases Ghibli

Maserati is about to join the world of full-line luxury car-makers for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, as evidenced by the teaser image and spy shots you see here.

The Ghibli nameplate has already been announced for the ‘baby Quattroporte’ and although nobody at Maserati will confirm it is the Italian brand’s all-new entry-level sedan under this sheet, the text that accompanied its media invitation to this month’s Shanghai motor show leaves few stones unturned.

“A truly exciting discovery awaits you: the worldwide presentation of our newest model,” said Maserati. “Be the first to experience a stunning car, which will leave you breathless, confirming both the incomparable heritage of Maserati as well as its extraordinary future.”

The Ghibli four-door sports sedan will be around 300mm shorter in both the wheelbase and the overall length than the just-launched Quattroporte and is rumoured to feature two versions of Maserati’s turbocharged 3.0-litre petrol V6.

Sharing much of the internal engine engineering and architecture as the Quattroporte’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, the V6 is said to be a match for leading V8 engines from the German prestige makers and will throw the Ghibli to 100km/h in less than five seconds.

Sources at Maserati insist that the most potent Ghibli will top out at between 280 and 290km/h and yet its most economical version will have the best NEDC combined fuel economy cycle in Maserati history.

Yes, besides offering a choice of rear- and all-wheel drive and using the same eight-speed automatic transmission as the Quattroporte, the Ghibli will also introduce the first diesel engine in the company’s history.

Believed to be a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel based on the VM Motori unit in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the engine won’t be in the initial Ghibli line-up, but will slide into the engine bay for mostly European consumption by the middle of 2014.

President Sergio Marchionne has fingered the mythical Modena car-maker as one of the Chrysler Fiat Group’s most crucial brands and the upcoming Ghibli is expected to be its cornerstone.

Codenamed M157 and based on a cut-down version of the new Quattroporte platform, it will be sent into production in July - three months after it makes its world debut in China on April 19.

Maserati expects the M157-codenamed Ghibli, which was recently spied testing in Germany, to deliver half of the volume of its ambitious plans to hit 50,000 sales a year by 2015 – up from around 7000 last year.

It will do this by attacking everything from BMW’s 5 Series and 6 Series GranCoupe to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and CLS, Audi’s A6 and A7, Jaguar’s XF and even the bottom end of its XJ family.

Reviving a nameplate last seen on a two-seat sports car in the early 1970s, it will round out the Maserati line-up with the Ghibli as the entry-level model and the Quattroporte at the top of the sedan range.

Also joining the two-door GranTurismo and GranCabrio family will be an SUV wearing the Trident badge, dubbed the Levante and based on the Grand Cherokee platform, by the middle of 2014.

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