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Maserati’s Facelifted Grecale Is Shooting For Porsche’s Open Goal
- Maserati is testing facelifted prototypes of its Grecale SUV.
- Both ICE and Folgore EV versions of the Macan rival spotted.
- New bumpers seen in photos but rear, interior look unchanged.
Maserati is having a rough old time, its sales sinking from 51,500 cars in 2017 to a pitiful 7,900 last year across all of its model lines. Porsche was down too, in 2025, but to 279,449 vehicles, and the Macan alone accounted for over 84,000 of them.
But now Porsche has goofed, giving Maserati a chance to boost its own performance with a refreshed version of its Grecale, the Italian firm’s Macan rival. Fresh spy shots show Maserati is working on updates for both the combustion and the Folgore electric variants of its smallest SUV that are likely to be MY27 cars.
Related: Porsche Sold More Cars In 11 Days Than Maserati Did The Entire Year
So what exactly is this open goal Porsche has gifted Maserati? It’s the end of combustion Macan production. The SUV is already off-sale in mainland Europe due to its failure to comply with European cybersecurity regulations, and though it’s still available in other markets for the time being, production ends this summer.
The Macan Electric EV, which Porsche conceived as taking over from the ICE version altogether, will still be available, but that’s not the one most buyers want. In the first quarter of this year Porsche sold 18,209 Macans of all powertrain types, but only 8,079 of them were EVs. The Stuttgart crew already knows it made a mistake killing off one of its most popular models, and has greenlit a new combustion Macan it never expected to make, but it’s going to be 2028 before its available.
Maserati Needs To Capitalize On Porsche’s Mistake
That presents Maserati – presuming parent company Stellantis doesn’t decide to cut its losses – with a small opportunity to pick up sales for the Grecale, which is still available in both ICE and EV form.
The camouflage on the nose of both the white combustion prototype and gray Folgore EV (above) suggests we can expect some very mild front-end changes, and it looks like the lower bumper shape has changed. We can’t see any tweaks to the headlights or anything at the undisguised rear, but we might see some mods on later prototypes as we closer to the launch.
One shot showing the interior tells us Maserati hasn’t got any big updates planned for the dashboard, whose upper navigation screen and lower climate one are separated by a bank of transmission buttons. We’ve tried the current Grecale and came away impressed with the handling balance and quality, but less enamoured with the lack of physical switches, brake pedal feel and four-cylinder engine noise.
Grecale Already Updated For 2026
We don’t know yet what Maserati has planned under the hood of the facelifted cars, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see improvements to the Folgore’s 550 hp (558 PS / 410 kW) power output. The 275 mile (443 km) EPA range stats could also be bumped though they were already upped by 30 miles (48 km) for 2026 thanks to a new all-wheel drive disconnect function.
Also for 2026 Maserati junked the unloved 2.0-liter four-cylinder from entry-level and mid-spec US-market cars, replacing them with a version of the brand’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo Nettuno V6 making 385 hp (390 PS). The Trofeo halo model has a 523 hp (530 PS) take on the same powertrain.
The Macan’s absence isn’t going to dramatically change Maserati’s fortunes, but if the brand really is to survive it needs to leverage the hell out of the advantage Porsche has given it.
