Battery sizes: 97 kWh
E-Rating™: C
Max charge rate: 150kW
WLTP range: 310 miles
Introduction and Model History
The Maserati Grecale Folgore is the Italian brand’s first electric SUV. It arrives in a flurry of other all-electric Maserati Folgore models, as this historic Italian performance brand (it’s older than Ferrari, don’t you know…) is now offering petrol or fully electric variants of its entire lineup.
The Grecale is the most ‘everyday’ of Maserati’s stable, if you can really call any Maserati an everyday car... It’s a 4.86-metre long, five-seat family SUV that’s complete with a 97kWh usable (105kWh total) battery, for a range of up to 310 miles despite having all-wheel drive and 550bhp for a 0-62mph time of 4.1 seconds. That’s the only electric powertrain on offer, too; there’s no more affordable, more moderate, longer-range offering. If you want the electric Maserati SUV, you’re getting a lot of power and you’re spending nearly £100,000.
Range, Battery and Charging
The Grecale Folgore gets a 97kWh usable (105kWh total) lithium-ion NMC battery, which is good for a combined WLTP range of up to 310 miles. Unfortunately, that’s rather underwhelming for such a big battery. After all, the Grecale Folgore must compete with the BMW iX, Mercedes EQE SUV, Polestar 4, Lotus Eletre, and even the slightly smaller Audi Q6 e-tron and Porsche Macan. And all of these rivals manage around 370- to 390 miles to a charge, with some offering over 400 miles to a charge.
Regardless, while I muddled through Surrey’s busy, mansion-lined roads and out for a drive around the M25 (no doubt the natural commute of the Grecale Folgore owner) it was returning around 240 miles to a charge, which isn’t too bad. That’ll no doubt drop to closer to 200 miles in wintery motorway miles, or will likely creep up towards 260 miles in slower driving and summer conditions.
Charging is up to 150kW, which is good for a 10 – 80% charge in around 30 minutes, or 100 miles of additional charge in around 15- to 20 minutes. Mind you, quite a few of those rivals charge at over 200kW. There’s no vehicle-to-load (V2L) on the Maserati Grecale Folgore.
Practicality and Boot Space
The Grecale gets a decent 535-litre boot capacity, which’ll easily take a couple of sets of golf clubs or a chunky double buggy. Rear passenger space is very good, too. There’s plenty of leg- and headroom even for a tall adult, although it seems a bit cheeky that you have to pay £1,600 for a panoramic sunroof that was fitted to our test car, given the price of the Grecale! Still, it does help to make the rear seats feel light and airy. There’s standard rear heated seats with climate control, too, and the seats fold flat in a 40/20/40 split.
Interior, Design/Styling and Technology
The Maserati Grecale Folgore has a lovely, slim steering wheel with big paddles for adjusting the brake regen’ – which I love. Maserati has always offered gorgeous steering wheels. BMW could learn a lot from them, in that respect…
Anyway, enough of my peculiar Maserati steering wheel fetish. The rest of the interior feels classy but it doesn’t have the same lustre of the BMW iX, Porsche Macan, Polestar 3 or Lotus Eletre. There are two screens – the top one for the majority of your media stuff and for the nav readout (wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard), and the lower for the climate control and other cabin settings.
It's a bit of a fussy-looking system that suffers from having quite small icons that are hard to press accurately. Even so, it’s not too difficult to get used to and the graphics are good, so it does the job that you need it do just fine. There’s a head-up display, too, but you guessed it… It costs extra. It’s part of the Tech Pack for £1,755, which also includes the ‘kick sensor’ hands-free boot opening feature that never works when you want it to - on any car, ever - but does open the boot when you’re least expecting it.
Motors, Performance and Handling
The Maserati Grecale Folgore is not slow, but then with 550bhp and a 0-62mph time of 4.1 seconds you probably don’t need me to confirm that. The good news is that the accelerator pedal has a nice, predictable response and the brake feel is very good, so the Maserati is really easy to drive smoothly whether you’re in race-ready Corsa mode, or any of the more easygoing drive modes.
There are four brake regen’ modes to choose from, too, ranging from entirely off so that the car coasts freely, through three heavier modes that I’d say are all a bit too similar. I’d like the heaviest to be a proper one-pedal mode but it’s not quite that strong.
Light but pleasantly oily-feeling steering response also makes the Grecale a really pleasant drive in most normal, daily driving. There’s not the same level of steering feel and tactility that you get in some of those rivals, though; the Maserati’s steering feels oddly disconnected when the car is weighted up in a faster corner.
Ride comfort leaves a bit to be desired, too. No matter which of the adaptive suspension modes you’ve selected, there’s quite a bit of body lean yet you also feel bumps and ruts, so it ends up feeling like a firm ride that also doesn’t quite deliver the body control that you might hope the stiffer suspension would deliver.
Running Costs and Pricing
At nearly £100,000 the Grecale Folgore is not cheap even by the standards of its peers, and that’s before you’ve added various options that can push the price up quite substantially. Ultimately, if you’re buying a Maserati you’re probably not overly concerned about whether you’re getting the best value, but when a Polestar 3 the Grecale Folgore does seem pricey despite the performance and brand lustre it’s offering. When a Porsche Macan 4S is more than £20,000 cheaper despite having much the same pace and a usefully longer range, you’ve got to wonder how much you really want the Grecale’s exotic Italian image.
Verdict
I’m really pleased that the Maserati Grecale Folgore exists. It’s one of those ‘heart over head’ cars, and the fact that we’re seeing these more flamboyant options becoming available with electric powertrains is a great thing. More variety, and more enthusiast options in the electric car classes, is always a good thing in my opinion. But no matter how you ooh and ah over the Grecale’s lovely trident badge, rapid performance and general kerbside appeal, this is a very difficult car to justify. It’s overwhelmed with rivals that go further, cost less, have better interiors and are just more recommendable on every level. If you can still work out a reason to buy one despite that harsh reality, then go for it. It’s a peculiarly intriguing and charming car, if one that falls short on too many critical areas.
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