The Maserati Alfieri Concept Is Closer To The Maserati Brothers’ Dream Than Anything In Past Decades
I’ll defend everything I present here, but the Maserati Alfieri Concept is much closer to what the Maserati brothers were working on than anything else from these past decades. An electric Maserati, even the Maserati Alfieri Concept, is closer to the original pioneering Maserati spirit of the 1930s than what we’ve seen since then.
The Maserati Alfieri Concept, What The Maserati Brothers Were All About
The Maserati family have a fantastic story to tell, and the Maserati race car lineage is part of its rich history. However, we don’t associate Maserati with green, clean, and energy efficient driving machines.
The first car I truly remember seeing, or at least consciously saw, was the tail end of our family friend’s Bugatti. It was a ’37, maybe a ’35, but my memory is a little hazy from when I was 6 years old. What was next to it was an Alfa Romeo 1750 with its stunning Zagato body work and other Maserati and Ferrari collector cars and racing legends. But what attracted me was the pioneering spirit. Had electricity continued to propel car wheels, these early automotive pioneers would have been working with electric motors instead of wasting their time on an inefficient internal combustion engine (ICE) design that relied on an opposing piston cycle of all things!
Perhaps Gas2‘s Jo Borra says it best: “There is no doubt that the Alfieri concept represents the true essence of the Maserati brand. It is a sleek, Italian style 2+2 like the 1957 3500 GT, the 1959 5000 GT and the 1969 Indy before it, and clearly affirms Maseratis racing DNA. Sportier in character than the GranTurismo, the Alfieri boasts proportions that might well be archetypal for a future true sport car and certainly hint at the brands stylistic intentions for the near future. Maserati doesn’t change. Maserati is always Maserati, as Ramaciotti puts it.”
The Electric Maserati Alfieri Concept Has Power
Yes, we don’t know much about it and this sounds like Ferrari is using Maserati, which it owns, to develop competition for the Tesla Roadster. Yes, this is all on the watch of charismatically anti-EV crusader Sergio Marchionne. It’s another impressive use of history, lineage, and racing in an electric vehicle (EV) performance world.
Obviously, Ferrari will handle the pure raw performance of its electric roadster while Maserati tunes it to a more discriminate crowd, ultimately to have Alfa Romeo synthesize both.
But what we do know is impressive. The new electric Maserati Alfieri concept will hit 60 MPH (~100 km/h) in under 2 seconds. Although we love those numbers, we also remember that even the best Tesla Model S can’t keep up its “Ludicrous Mode” for more than a lap. After that, the battery pack overheats and a lot of time is needed to cool off this hefty beast. We are told the electric Maserati Alfieri Concept will keep on going to a top speed around 186 MPH.
Performance EVs Are Well Represented
When it comes to performance EVs, the field is starting to become well represented and perhaps teetering on the verge of being over-represented. One thing is for sure, though — there is a lot more news about future performance EVs then EVs for today or tomorrow in the affordable $20,000 range.
We are happy to see an illustrious brand with such a prestigious past as Maserati step into the world of electric mobility with the Electric Maserati Alfieri Concept. I will meet the team in Nice, France, with some older Maseratis or in Los Angeles for a test drive!
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