BOLD RIDE
Back in 2011, Maserati wowed the press with the debut of the striking and luxurious Kubang SUV concept (pictured). Fast forward four years, and that Maserati SUV has yet to arrive in showrooms. But that won’t be the case for long.
When the Kubang SUV debuted, it was intended to be built in North America utilizing the Jeep Grand Cherokee platform. Now, the brand’s production-ready Levante successor will be built in Italy and will keep its Maserati underpinnings.
“It will be based 100 percent on the Quattroporte platform,” Maserati CEO Harald Wester told the outlet. “It will be significantly different from the concept and better in every way.”
Those Quattroporte underpinnings mean that the all-wheel-drive Maserati Levante should carry the car’s twin-turbo V6 and twin-turbo V8 engines when it arrives on North American shores.
Considering the original concept was a looker and the brand has had a few years to iron out the design, the production Levante SUV should turn heads when it arrives. And it needs to.
The Levante joins a rapidly growing field of luxury SUVs from high-end marques, including the new 2017 Bentley Bentayga and the 2018 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. However, the Maserati Levante will more closely rival the Porsche Cayenne and Range Rover Sport when it comes to performance and pricing.
The 2016 debut of the Levante isn’t the only highly anticipated reveal for Maserati either. The production version of the stunning 2014 Alfieri concept is expected to debut in late 2016, followed by a convertible variant in 2017, and a new GranTurismo for 2018.
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