Based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee and slated to be the brand’s volume seller, Maserati’s Levante SUV has remained more-or-less in the dark despite its crucial role for the brand.
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The upcoming Maserati Levante SUV will not be produced in Detroit as previously announced. Instead one of Fiat’s plants in Turin, Italy will be making the new luxury SUV.
It’s been well documented that when the Maserati SUV finally hits production form, it would no longer be called the Kubang. But confirmation from Maserati’s director of product planning has reconfirmed that the Kubang is simply applied only to the SUV’s concept.
Smaller than the Quattroporte, Maserati is gearing up to introduce a sew sports sedan into its lineup, likely called ‘Levante,’ that is meant to compete with the BMW 5-series, Audi A6 and Mercedes E-class, and our spy photographers managed to snap some pictures of a test mule on the road.
Maserati is readying three new production models for the market, one of which will bear the name “Levante”. The question is, which one?
The Italian luxury automaker has recently trademarked the “Levante” badge for use as a nameplate on one of its new vehicles. The Quattroporte will soon be getting a successor, the Kubang SUV concept is working its way into a production model, and the most likely of the three to use the Levante name is a new sports sedan being produced to compete with the likes of BMW’s M5 and Audi’s A7.
This new small sedan will be Maserati’s answer to an affordable luxury car, supposedly starting around the $75,000 mark.
Maserati hasn’t said which car will get the “Levante” title, but the company has given us some obvious clues. The rights to the name “Cinqueporte”, which literally translates to five doors, has also been trademarked by the company, and is the clear choice for the new SUV. The “Quattroporte”(shown above) badge is already a nameplate with some prestige attached to it, so changing it to something new and unknown is also unlikely. That leaves the new sports sedan, which we would bet will be named “Levante” when it debuts sometime in 2013.
[Source: Motorionline]