Maserati will be the last premium automaker to the battery-electric car party, but it insists it won’t follow anybody else’s rules when it gets there.
Engineering boss Roberto Fedeli is under orders from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chief Sergio Marchionne to deliver a Maserati EV as soon as possible, but it simply can’t happen from a standing start before 2019.“I think that we could show something before 2020. Maybe 2019,” he suggested during an interview at the Paris auto show. “We are working to be ready with something that we can show during the next couple of years.” Even with the ultra-quick, largely digital development process pioneered with the Alfa Romeo Giulia, that still leaves early 2020 as the most likely start date for a production Maserati EV.
And, when it does come, its first model will be specialized and low volume, so expect it to be more of a sleek grand-touring coupe rather than a Tesla fighter. By the time Maserati’s entry arrives, there will probably be production EVs in the premium segment from BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Lexus, Infiniti, and Volvo, along with Tesla. “We will be last (with a production EV), and we have to arrive to the market with something different. Very different.”
He added, “A Tesla fighter probably [is] not a good idea.” Fedeli, who was poached from BMW’s i division earlier this year by Marchionne to head engineering and development for both Maserati and Alfa Romeo, cited a list of reasons why Maserati wouldn’t benchmark Tesla, including engineering quality, driving dynamics, and the Trident’s desire to march to its own drumbeat.
“I don’t think that Tesla is the best product in the market but they are doing 50,000 cars a year,” the former Ferrari technical boss explained. “The execution and quality of the products of Tesla are the same as a German OEM in the 1970s. Their solutions are not the best.”
Another issue is how to make an EV feel like a Maserati. Fedeli insists today’s EVs are simply too heavy to be enjoyable to drive. “Acceleration for three seconds, maximum, and that’s all the emotion that is found. After that there is nothing,” he suggested. Fedeli admits one of his hardest challenges with an EV is to find a new Maserati characteristic to replace the sound of the engine. Today’s Maserati goes to great lengths to tune its internal-combustion V-6 and V-8 engines, even employing a composer from Milano’s famed La Scala opera house to deliver its signature engine note.
“Sound is not the most important characteristic of electric cars,” he admitted. “The EV is something different and we have to [give] the car [Maserati character] without having one of our most important parameters.”
The other matter is the weight of the batteries. “[In an EV], you feel a lot of weight, more than anything else. Torque and power are interesting for a very few seconds but then the weight does not let you enjoy the car on a normal road,” he says. “That’s inconsistent with the brand we are representing and needs to be solved.”
Source: Car and Driver
