What's the news?
Brands are nothing without an SUV these days and for the first time in its more than 100-year history, Maserati will enter the 4x4 fray with this, the Levante.
This is just the exterior styling preview ahead of its full Geneva Motor Show debut, but already you can see the clear Maserati design cues making their way onto the Levante's form: note the tapering headlights, or the oval grille, or the trio of air vents on the front wings, for instance. Whether you like the styling or not will probably largely depend on whether you like SUVs in principle, as (in our opinion) the Levante is neither startlingly ugly nor admirably striking.
Little is known in the way of tech at the moment, although Maser did at least confirm the Levante will get electronic suspension with adjustable damping and air springs on all models, Q4 intelligent all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox that is 'specially calibrated' for the SUV. Power will come from a range of EU6-compliant petrol and diesel lumps.
Anything else?
The Maserati Levante is built at the Mirafiori plant in Turin and the first cars have already left the assembly line, ahead of the model's European launch in spring. The Levante will then spread to the rest of the world later in 2016.