Second Maserati SUV Could Be in the Pipeline

With the success of the Maserati Levante, the Italian brand’s first-ever crossover, Maserati is looking at introducing a second crossover or SUV.

The Levante has injected a bit of life into the once lethargic Maserati brand. It helped the automaker record its highest ever annual sales in 2016 at 42,100 units and it could be set to do it once more, with the Levante alone expected to record as many as 25,000 sales globally this year.

With those kinds of sales results, introducing a second crossover is a no-brainer for Maserati brand boss Reid Bigland. Speaking to Germany’s Auto Motor Und Sport, Bigland said the luxury segment is all about building vehicles people want to buy, and right now, consumers are buying SUVs. The Canadian executive drew parallels to Porsche, whose best-selling model in 2016 was its Macan small SUV, of which more than 95,000 units were delivered.

SEE ALSO: 5 Things We Learned Driving the 2017 Maserati Levante S

Maserati would be smart to emulate Porsche’s business model. The German automaker is now mainly a purveyor of crossovers, but it’s largely viewed as a sportscar brand. Maserati, which will eventually introduce its two-seat Alfieri sports car and also roll out a successor to the GranTurismo, is keen to tap into the crossover/SUV craze, but like Porsche, it wants its sporty image to remain.

It’s not clear when a second Maserati crossover will arrive and seeing as the brand is famously slow to get product to market, we’re not expecting to see it anytime soon. We’ll likely get new variants of the Levante before an all-new crossover arrives, with rumors pointing to both V8 and plug-in hybrid versions of the SUV arriving eventually.

[Source: Carscoops]
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