Maserati exec confirms electric Alfieri

A MASERATI executive has spilled the beans on the Italian sportscar manufacturer’s plans for an all-electric Tesla rival based on its upcoming Alfieri two-seater.

Speaking at the United Kingdom launch of the new Levante SUV, North Europe regional manager for Maserati, Peter Denton, told British online publication just-auto.com that he expected the battery-powered sportscar to arrive in 2020, after the initial internal combustion engine variants in about 2019.

He was quoted as saying that the Alfieri was being designed as a Porsche 911 competitor, but would be slightly bigger, around the size of Jaguar’s F-Type.

The Alfieri concept was revealed by Maserati at the 2014 Geneva motor show where it was explained that the name was taken from one of the Maserati brothers who founded the company in Modena in 1914.

The car was to have gone into production this year, but was delayed when priority was given to the new Levante SUV that is now being rolled out into showrooms in Europe ahead of its Australian debut in diesel-only form in early 2017.

To be manufactured in liftback coupe and convertible forms, mainstream Alfieris will be offered with a choice of twin-turbo V6 engines with power ranging from 306kW to 418kW, with the more powerful versions getting all-wheel drive.

It is unclear if the V8 of the concept will make it into production, but most European pundits believe emissions and fuel economy pressure have put paid to that, with the EV getting the nod instead to help Maserati meet Europe’s planned 95-gram per kilometre carbon dioxide emission fleet average limit.

The upcoming new-generation four-seat GranTurismo and GranCabrio due about 2018 are also expected to get V6 power instead of the current V8.

Maserati’s push into electric propulsion is in line with other European manufacturers that are almost universally working on EVs for the new world order from 2020.

Porsche, for example, has already shown electric prototypes such as 2015’s Mission E and announced it will spend €1 billion ($A1.43b) on developing and tooling up for electric vehicle production.