Maserati Grecale Appears In Company's Own Deliberately Shonky 'Spy Shots'

At some point, a yet-to-be-revealed car will have to be tested on the road. Wherever you test it in the world, though, it’s going to get papped, either by a professional or a member of the public. It’s an inevitability some manufacturers have embraced by getting in on the act themselves for PR gains.

One such firm is Maserati. A little while back, we saw the Italian company put out a bunch of its own ‘spy shots’ for a mule we now know to be for the MC20. This week, the company is at it again with the Grecale.

What’s most curious about the snaps is that they seem to have been taken deliberately badly to further obscure the camouflaged vehicle. They were shot on the road outside Maserati’s Viale Ciro Menotti factory, meaning the mule would have been moving slowly enough to get a decent pic. And yet, both the front end shots are focused on the background, leaving the subject itself very blurry.

For the rear, rather than taking a clear image, the snapper shot the Grecale through some railings. Contrived, or clever PR? Well, we’re talking about it, so perhaps it’s the latter. In any case, we can at least see that Maserati’s new SUV will look a lot like its big brother, the Levante.

It’ll be very different under the skin, though, with Maserati expected to base the car on the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform that currently underpins the Stelvio and Giulia. This will give Maserati the option of a Trofeo-badged range-topper powered by the Stelvio/Giulia Quadrifoglio’s 503bhp twin-turbo V6.

The bulk of the sales volume will be in lower-powered models, though, one of which might have the 325bhp mild-hybrid powertrain from the Ghibli, which uses an Alfa inline-four at its heart. All models will be built at the Stellantis plant in Cassino, Italy, where the Stelvio is also produced. In preparation, Maserati will be pumping €800 million into the facility.

The Grecale will be revealed “before the end of 2021,” Maserati says.