Maserati Ghibli premieres at the Shanghai Motor Show

The Shanghai Motor Show will mark three giant steps in Maserati’s march towards its goal of 50,000 cars a year. The Maserati momentum that began late last year with the all-new V8 and V6 Quattroporte continues in Shanghai with the all-new Ghibli – the first-ever mid-size four-door luxury sports saloon in Maserati’s history. Both the Quattroporte and the Ghibli saloons will each boast two different power outputs from their turbo-charged V6 petrol engines.

The Ghibli will additionally be offered with the first diesel engine in Maserati’s history. The turbo-diesel 3.0-litre V6 developed by Maserati engineers under the direction of Scuderia Ferrari former Chief Motorist Paolo Martinelli. Another Maserati making its world debut in Shanghai is a version of the new Quattroporte equipped with a V6 capable of 330bhp and specifically conceived and developed for the Chinese market. 

MASERATI GHIBLI WORLDWIDE DEBUT

The Ghibli is set to break new grounds for Maserati. With its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show, it marks the first time in Maserati history that the Italian sports, luxury and prestige maker will have two four-door saloons on sale at the same time. The Ghibli’s design ethos emphasises its more dynamic driving characteristics by maintaining visible links with the larger Quattroporte while delivering a more aggressive visual personality. The outline of the body reflects a coupe-like philosophy for the four-door saloon, while there are strong feline hints around the Ghibli’s grille and headlights. The grille takes its inspiration from the current GranTurismo and it can draw a line back to the classic A6 GCS of the 1950s. It also maintains Maserati’s distinctive C-pillar treatment, which delivers much of the coupe-like stance and carries the classical Saetta Maserati logo, carrying on a tradition dating back to 1963.

The side profile is dominated by a swage line that runs from the traditional Maserati grille vents behind the front wheels and finishes in the rear lights themselves. Inside, the Ghibli sets itself apart from the Quattroporte with its own dashboard design that perfectly meets the buyer’s need for a sportier and youthful experience without losing any of the luxury expected in a Maserati. The Ghibli also delivers a sporty design combined with the typical roominess of an executive saloon. The Ghibli will have a more-focused, sportier philosophy than the larger Quattroporte. It will be available with two turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engines, and an eight-speed automatic transmission. The most powerful of the V6s will be the twin-turbo unit in the Ghibli S, which produces 301kW (410hp) of power at 5500rpm and 550Nm of torque from just 1750rpm. The rear-wheel drive Ghibli S will reach 100km/h in 5 seconds flat, and has a quoted top speed of 285km/h (177 mph).

The second turbo-charged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine available on the Ghibli not only has an impressive power of 243kW (330hp) and 500Nm of torque, but delivers a fuel economy figure of just 9.6 litres/100km (28.8 mpg). It is much more than a fuel saving car, though, because it is capable of accelerating to 100km/h in just 5.6 seconds. Both of these engines, with their parallel turbochargers, were developed by Maserati Powertrain in partnership with Ferrari Powertrain and will be built by Ferrari in its world-leading engine construction facility in Maranello. Sharing much of the technology with the Quattroporte’s 3.8-litre V8 engine, the V6 engines use petrol direct-injection technology along with two low-inertia parallel turbochargers, four continuous camshaft phasers and deliver their fuel at around 200 bar of pressure.

This technology means that while the Ghibli S V6 has a rev limiter at 6500rpm, it still delivers 90 percent of its torque from less than 1500rpm. The Ghibli will also become the first Maserati production car in history to be powered by a diesel engine, with a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel. The 3.0-litre turbo-charged V6 develops 202kW (275hp) of power and a crushing 600Nm of torque to deliver 0-100km/h acceleration in just 6.3 seconds. Critically, its NEDC fuel economy figure is less than 6.0 litres per 100km (more than 47 mpg). It uses highly advanced Common-Rail direct fuel injection with 2000 bar of injection pressure and it also features reduced-dwell-time injectors. This helps it to deliver sequential multiple injections for highly responsive performance and cleaner emissions with a CO2 output of less than 160g/km on the combined cycle.