Maserati’s history is full of twists and turns, in more recent decades seeing the luxury sports car brand carried by Fiat into an eventual home at the mammoth Stellantis group. There’s a shifting in the tides, moving Maserati on from the sports cars and gran tourers it has always been known for, into mass market segments.

The launch of the Levante in 2016 brought an SUV to the line-up – one that’s still just about offering that Ferrari-sourced V8 engine at the top Trofeo level – and is now followed by the Grecale. Maserati is taking the brand into the mass market with a compact SUV. There’s no V8 here, but this is one of the company’s models ear-marked for a fully-electric powertrain in 2024. While we wait for the launch of that new electric model, we jumped into the mild-hybrid version to see what it offers.

Design

It’s no accident that Maserati has found itself launching a compact SUV. That’s the largest selling car segment and everyone is scrambling to have something to offer – especially when there’s a big parent company in the driving seat. It should be no surprise, then, that the Grecale is Stellantis-sourced, sharing the platform with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio (albeit with a reconfigured chassis), while the engine also comes from the group. No, it hasn’t come from Ferrari, but instead it’s a four-cylinder petrol. More on that later…

What the Grecale really does, however, is open up the brand to a new set of customers. From execs seeking a sports cars, to a premium family SUV with motoring heritage, it’s quite the shift. It’s worth mentioning that Alfa is using the same playbook with the Alfa Romeo Tonale: it’s all about making the brand appeal to new customer segments.

From the exterior, the Grecale perhaps isn’t as distinctive as the company’s sports cars, but it looks like a slightly scaled-down Levante. There’s only so much you can do with that compact SUV shape, however and much of it comes down to the nose or the undulations of the bodywork. There’s a scooped opening on the front carrying the Maserati badge, those classic vents on the side, wheels which carry the trident design, all adorning the sleek design.

Flush door handles and LED headlights carry the Grecale into the modern era, while there’s plenty of classic Maserati design about the exterior. There are three models of the Grecale at launch, the GT and Modena (on review here), then the sporty Trofeo, with the Folgore (the electric one), joining the pack in the near future. The different models really give you different performance, with minor exterior details, but it’s a good-looking car, sure to be distinctive against the Porsche Macan, or top-level BMW and Audi models that might otherwise be the defacto choice.

The Maserati Grecale starts at just over $65k in the US or £60k in the UK; that’s around the same sort of price as an Audi SQ5 – and the Modena model is similar in terms of performance to that Audi model – while the Trofeo takes things a step higher.

There are some exterior options, being able to choose things like the hue of the brake calipers, as well as adding dreamlines and liveries – but at a hefty cost. It’s worth taking a closer look at the paintwork too, because on this black model – it’s actually called Nero Tempesta – with sparkle coming through as it catches the light: it’s quite beautiful.

A high-quality interior

While we expressed a slight note of sadness at the lack of the V8 found in the Levante, the Grecale’s interior is far more modern than that of the older, larger, SUV. It feels like a sports car interior, lavished with carbonfibre and red leather, there’s an opulence that match’s this car’s price. Naturally the interior comes with many more options and this is where you can really personalise what you get but also where you’ll see the base price rising rapidly.

There’s been a shift away from buttons, with the centre display sitting above a secondary multi-function display that will handle many common controls, principally climate control, but also giving you access to a range of other customisations. You can also access the controls for the seat bolsters, so you can adjust the sporty seats to suit your body shape and have them effectively grip you on corners to reduce body roll.

The reduction in buttons sees controls moving onto the steering wheel, with the engine start button and drive mode selector – including the control for the adaptive air suspension here; paired with huge paddles for manual gear changes (if you wish to use them), there’s again that strong sports car aesthetic. That’s what customers are going to want from a Maserati, after all.

The steering wheel is a little busy as a result, with the full suite of cruise control options here, as well as controls for the digital driver display, calling, voice control and so on.

In a bid to modernise, there’s also push buttons to release the doors rather than the traditional old pull handle and it’s these little details that make the Grecale feel like something special.

The rear seats aren’t huge, but there’s plenty of space for adults in the back, although there is a bump in the floor for the transmission tunnel – it will be interesting to see if this is reduced when the electric Folgore version launches.

The boot space is also useful at 535 litres – slightly larger than the Porsche Macan – so this is a car that’s going to be practical too, whether you’re doing the weekly shop or heading to the beach for the weekend.

The interior tech

Sitting behind the steering wheel is a 12.3-inch digital display, with customisation buttons on the steering wheel so you can change the view to a degree. It mostly sticks to conventional dials, not going as far as Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, but still giving access to all the information you might need.

This is paired with a 12.3-inch central display, sitting atop an 8.8-inch display. Between the displays you’ll find the PRND drive controls, so you push the respective button to shift into drive. We’ve seen similar from the likes of the Fiat 500e all the way up to the Aston Martin DBX707, the advantage it offers is removing the drive controller. When the Grecale appears as an electric version, that means you’re not left looking at a legacy shifter.

The central displays are of a high quality, so the user interface looks great. It’s pretty intuitive too, allowing home page widgets you can swipe through with buttons for the main areas – media, navigation, phone, vehicle controls and apps down the side. There are some shortcuts across the top of the display – including access to Amazon’s Alexa, although you’ll need to have that all connected up with your phone to work.

There’s a Qi wireless charging pad along with support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay – again both wireless – and it’s likely that many will simply opt to use those services rather than Maserati’s own. Such is the modern way and firing up Android Auto we found it to run seamlessly, along with some information transferring to the driver display, like music information.

Sitting at the top of the dash is a clock. Many brands love their clocks and here the Maserati clock is digital, so you can put it to better use. This includes an indicator that your phone is charging on the wireless pad, or you can have a fun meter to show power and braking. Again, it’s a modern twist on a traditional feature and contributes to making the Grecale a little different.

Our test model was also equipped with the premium Sonos faber sound system, with 21 speakers adorning the cabin, delivering 1285W output with the option for an immersive 3D sound, to really get the most out of your music. It sounds fantastic.

Grecale power and performance

Talking of soundtracks, we come back to the engine. This isn’t a car that gets a thrilling exhaust note, because you’re looking at a four-cylinder petrol engine. Sure, it sounds good when it revs high, but it’s in no way compatible to the V8 that other Maseratis offer. But the Grecale is about moving with the times and as we move into the electric era, this is likely to be a car that’s defined by its silence instead – we’ll know more about that in 2024.

Maserati isn’t offering a plug-in hybrid option, so on the Modena version reviewed here this is a mild hybrid, with a 2-litre petrol engine delivering 330hp. That will see it do 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds with a max torque of 450Nm. That’s respectable performance for an SUV, but unlikely to deliver the best economy. The averages for our test car returned a 23.7mpg figure.

As we mentioned previously, the three trim levels affect the power that the Grecale offers, from the 300hp GT up to the 530hp Trofeo, which has a V6 for increased performance and excitement on the road with a 0-60mph time of 3.8 seconds – along with a hefty bump in price. All the Grecale models are all-wheel drive, so there’s some utility to this sports utility vehicle too.

It’s a nice car to drive however, the steering feels nice and precise, while the adaptive suspension will allow you to change the height of the car to be more aero or to get a little more ground clearance. It feels planted and in control avoiding body roll and giving you a sense of sporty ability.

The automatic gearbox is quick to respond, with those huge aluminium paddles fixed to the steering column to give you direct control if you want it. There are several driving modes, with comfort being noticeable mode sedate than the other. In fact the only thing we really weren’t sold on was the sound that the indicator makes. In a car that’s in some ways very modern, to have an indicator that sounds like an old grandfather clock seems odd.

Verdict

From the exterior you can see that Maserati has attempted to bring some heritage flair to the Grecale, but there are limitations with what you can do to this size of SUV – it’s not as exciting as some of grand tourers carrying that iconic trident badge, but we feel that the interior makes up for it – especially when compared to Levante, which ends up feeling rather dated on the interior.

It’s a practical car which you need a compact SUV to be, while there’s still plenty of performance. The GT and Modena aren’t equipped with the same sort of exciting engine as the Trofeo, but we suspect that many will look at the performance – above average for this segment – look at the badge and will be perfectly happy to have something a little different.

It’s expensive, of course, but it’s a Maserati SUV: importantly, it’s a nice SUV to drive and a nice cabin to sit in.