√Confirmed: Maserati Ghibli axed in 2024, next Quattroporte to shrink

The Maserati Ghibli will be killed off in 2024 so its bigger Quattroporte brother can live on – albeit as a smaller car – as buyers continue to shift towards SUVs.

The Maserati Ghibli sedan will disappear from showrooms in 2024, as the Italian car maker consolidates its sedan range – taking with it the option of twin-turbo V8 power in a Maserati.

Introduced in 2013, the Ghibli name returned from a hiatus on a rival for the BMW 5 Series, one size smaller than the 7 Series-sized Quattroporte – but it will be axed by 2025, as Maserati responds to declining sedan sales.

Plans announced earlier this year will see the Ghibli and Quattroporte merged into one model in 2025: a new sedan wearing the Quattroporte badge, but sized similarly to the old Ghibli.

With it will spell the end of the V8-powered Maserati, as the current Ghibli, Quattroporte and related Levante SUV (also set to be replaced by a new model in 2025) are the brand’s last models with eight cylinders, via a 3.9-litre twin-turbo Ferrari engine.

The next Quattroporte and Levante will offer electric power – but it’s unclear if they will be electric-only, or will retain the option of traditional, though likely six-cylinder power.

“The long term plan is that the Ghibli will be replaced with the Quattroporte,” Maserati Australia general manager Grant Barling told Drive this week.

“The Ghibli will move into run-out phase into 2024. We will stop producing the V8 [used in the Ghibli, Quattroporte and Levante Trofeo].

“The plan is for the Ghibli and Quattroporte to become one. So the Quattroporte will become a short-wheelbase [model] – Ghibli-sized, but called a Quattroporte”.

Maserati executives in Australia and overseas have cited slowing sedan sales for the decision, as customers shift to SUVs – a segment where Maserati will field two entries, the mid-size Grecale and large Levante.

“To be honest, that [large car] segment [in which the Ghibli competes] has come down quite a bit,” Barling told Drive.

“Our [sales] volume is down, but our market share is up in the segment – so other than the Porsche Taycan, that segment down is about 15 year to date. The Quattroporte’s segment is down even more. So sedans is definitely a tough segment to be in.”

Maserati has reported 70 Ghibli sedans as sold so far in 2022 – down 13.6 per cent on the same period last year.

However, as referenced by Barling, the Ghibli’s share of the large luxury car segment has risen from 4.4 to 5.9 per cent – though sales in this category are down 36 per cent year on year.

The Ghibli’s best year in Australia was 2015, when 345 cars were sold over the 12-month period, accounting for 7.2 per cent of 4781 vehicles sold in total in the large luxury car segment.

Meanwhile, Quattroporte sales are down 30 per cent year on year – albeit from a low base, selling seven cars so far this year, to 10 over the same period in 2021 – in a segment down 25.4 per cent.

Under a turnaround plan announced earlier this year, Maserati will go all-electric by the end of the decade, offering every model it sells with an electric variant – or purely as an electric car – by 2025.

Electric versions of the Grecale mid-size SUV and next-generation GranTurismo coupe and GranCabrio convertible models are due next year, with an electric variants of the MC20 supercar, and next Quattroporte and Levante due in 2025.

All future electric Maseratis will wear the Folgore badge, Italian for lightning.

No details of what will power the electric version of the next Quattroporte have been revealed, however as an electric-only vehicle, it’s likely to sit on one of the dedicated electric platforms being developed by Maserati’s parent company, Stellantis.

The sedan will sit in showrooms beside the GranTurismo Folgore, which has been confirmed to feature three electric motors, more than 883kW, a 0-100km/h time of under three seconds, and a top speed beyond 300km/h.

By contrast, Maserati’s first four-door model in Australia was the Biturbo, launched in 1987 – following the appointment of a formal Australian distributor, after years of low-volume imports – as a rival the BMW 3 Series.

The full-size Quattroporte – literally Italian for ‘four doors’ – was not offered locally until its fourth generation in 1995, some three decades after the nameplate made its debut in Europe in 1963.

While the Ghibli name has been seen on Maseratis in Australia since 1993 – and overseas since 1967 – the car in showrooms today is its first use on a four-door sedan, rather than a two-door coupe or roadster.

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