Maserati Grecale: This one has no rivals at all

Earlier this year Porsche rolled the last combustion engined Macan off the production lines, and that means if you want a compact luxury SUV with an out-and-out sporty focus, you are looking at the only one on the market.

Design & Styling

This is the Maserati Grecale and the 2026 facelift brings in a prominent horizontal line across the nose that splits the visual volume. The technical lower half has the Trident taking centre stage in the gaping sharknose grille, a reminder that we are now into the hundredth year of the Trident. Sitting on top is a beautifully evolved face, something only the Italians seem capable of pulling off in a sea of angry, snarly, barking mad grilles, all lit up so you can notice the Christmas tree coming at you from a hundred miles away. Admittedly this is only a small facelift, but the base design of the Grecale was so good to start off with that, on the road, this is stunning piece to behold. Clean, neat lines; classic Italian proportions. A thing of beauty. And if you think it looks good from the front, wait till you see it in profile, especially the rear three quarters with the swooping SUV-coupe roof line.

There’s the Maserati Trident on the C-pillar and on the front fenders sits another reminder of the brand’s heritage, the triple side vents which goes back to Maserati’s first production road car, the A6 1500 Prototipo designed by Pininfarina, and then revived with the 2005 Quattroporte. As to the whereabouts of the Quattroporte in Maserati’s current line-up, that’s a question best answered by this very SUV – the global proliferation of the body style meaning there’s no budget for a 4-door luxury saloon anymore. Then of course there’s the well-documented struggles to keep Maserati alive within the Stellantis group, sales dropping from the 2017 peak of over 51,000 cars to just 7800 in 2025. To save development money, Maserati were forced to share parts, switchgear, and platforms with Stellantis’ mainstream brands like Jeep, Dodge and Alfa Romeo – which obviously did not work. Neither did the push toward a rapid, forced transition to an all-electric Folgore lineup which alienated their traditional buyer base, who valued the visceral roar of Italian exhaust notes. And so, the revival plan which focuses on repositioning the brand as a high-margin, pure luxury brand rather than a high-volume manufacturer. Moving away from mass production, Maserati is leaning heavily into its Fuoriserie custom tailoring program based out of its historic Modena headquarters. There’s a strategic technological partnership being pursued with Huawei and JAC Motors in China wherein body shells will be engineered in China while interiors and final calibrations will be completed in Italy to create a mid-to-large-size electric SUV and a large electric GT to act as spiritual successors to the Levante SUV and Quattroporte luxury sedan. That’s slated for the latter part of next year, for now though Maserati reverses its rapid and forced transition to an all-electric Folgore lineup.

Visually the Modena gets black lettering and black chrome all over; even the teeth in the grille are all blacked out which looks sharp and sinister. Then there are carbonfibre wing mirror caps, blacked out window surrounds, the black Trident, black spoiler, even blacked out quad exhaust tips. The overall styling, the proportion, the way the lines are resolved, with just the right amount of strength layers with Italian va-va-voom makes it’s a proper head turner.

Engineering & Performance

Unlike the GranTurismo and GranCabrio, which Maserati builds itself in Modena, the Grecale comes out of a Stellantis factory it shares with Alfa Romeo, rolling down the same line as its sister car, the Stelvio. The Giorgio platform underneath is among the finest-handling architectures of the last decade, and Maserati has gone well beyond a badge job. The wheelbase is stretched over the Stelvio's, the body has been stiffened for better torsional rigidity, and the whole thing has been re-engineered to give it a sportier, more distinct character. Pop the bonnet and the V6 sits entirely behind the front axle line for better weight distribution, with a strut brace running across the top for good measure. And no, this is not a jacked-up GranTurismo either. Chassis, suspension, components, factory – nothing is shared. Different cars, made in different places, by different people.

In Modena-spec the Nettuno V6 makes 385bhp, enough to get the Grecale from 0-100kmph in 4.9 seconds and on to 200kmph in 20.8 seconds, with a top speed of 260kmph. Those are proper sports car numbers from a five-seat SUV that will happily do the school run.

Interiors

Step inside and you will recognise much of the cabin from the GranTurismo and GranCabrio. The chief update for 2026 is the row of metal P-R-N-D buttons that replace the plasticky ones, and they feel lovely and tactile under your finger. The rest is carried over – the central infotainment screen, the touch panel for the climate control, and that digital clock in its glass case that can also be switched to show your speed. The leather is nice, the seats are comfortable and properly supportive, and while the steering wheel misses out on the GranTurismo's Alcantara it is still nice and meaty in the hand. Two pods sprout from its spokes, the left for start-stop, the right for the drive modes along with a button to soften the dampers. Behind it sit big, cold, metal paddles, and they are fixed to the steering column, not the wheel, so they stay exactly where your fingers expect them mid-corner. Which is how proper sports cars do it. You can option a Sonos sound system, and there is a large sunroof which, while not a full panoramic unit (there is a bar across the middle), does lift the ambience.

Then there is the rear seat, and this is where the stretched wheelbase pays off. With the driver's seat set to my position I have three inches of free knee room, my toes tuck under the seat in front, and despite that swooping roofline headroom is perfectly fine. There is an armrest too. The only grouse is a backrest angle that is a touch too upright. I would never recommend a Macan to anybody planning to be chauffeured; the Grecale you can. Though the best seat in the house remains the one behind the wheel.

Competition check

So can the Grecale genuinely claim to be a Macan rival? We had some gorgeous roads climbing up into the Italian hills to find out, and the short answer is this thing handles really, really well. You could argue the hotter versions of the BMW X3 and Mercedes GLC are rivals too, and on paper they are, but none of them feel as special. Adaptive dampers are standard (air suspension is an option, not fitted to our car) and I had them in their stiffest setting for the twisties when we found what must be the only speed breaker in all of Italy. The Grecale went over it without complaint, and the ruts that followed too. That said, earlier in the day I had been in the GranTurismo, and it rounds off sharp edges noticeably better. Put that down to the SUV's raised ground clearance – physics will always have its say.

The Driving Experience

In the regular GT mode the V6 has a lovely, purposeful growl. Switch to Sport and the volume goes up, but much of it is piped into the cabin and it gets a bit too boomy. Honestly, it sounds better in GT. Either way the Grecale screams its sporting intent, and on roads like these it flows beautifully. It soaks up the bumps, you settle into a rhythm, pick your line, and broken patches of tarmac don't upset it. There is a rear bias to the all-wheel drive too, so you can get on the throttle a little earlier and feel the tail shuffle around under you. It is a surprising amount of fun, and I did not expect that.

Tne caveat. If you are buying this to be driven around in, remember this is a sporty SUV and it is firm. Unless the road is smooth – and in India, how often is that? – you will get thrown around a bit in the back. The driver's seat is where you enjoy the Grecale. And when you park it at home and walk away, you will turn around to look at it as you lock it. Every single time.

Verdict

Which brings me back to the one thing it does not get right. The Grecale is really, really expensive. The facelifted range in India has been launched starting at Rs 1.14 crore for the four-cylinder GT, the Modena is Rs 1.29 crore, the Modena V6 is Rs 1.39 crore, the Trofeo is Rs 2 crore, and the all-electric Folgore sits at Rs 1.90 crore, all ex-showroom. What doesn't change is the above Rs 60 lakh gulf between the Modena and the Trofeo, and to be fair the V6 in Modena spec does the job brilliantly – 385bhp is more than enough, it is fast, it is refined, and it ticks every box. Nor should you expect a Maserati showroom on every high street. In markets like India the brand is deploying a city-first, boutique retail approach that prioritises exclusivity for high-net-worth buyers over expanding its dealership footprint. Which, for a car like this, is rather the point.

Taking on the Macan, especially on dynamics, is an impossible ask. Maserati has pulled it off anyway. The Grecale isn't a Macan in out-and-out dynamic potential, but it handles well, has a grunty, characterful engine, more space, and is genuinely comfortable. As a sporty SUV it answers the brief almost perfectly. And with the combustion Macan gone, it now answers that brief on its own. At least Maserati have used arguably the coolest name in the segment for it – the Grecale is the north-easterly wind that sweeps across the Mediterranean, following the Ghibli, Levante and Mistral before it. It also looks, as the kids put it these days, sexy AF.