Maserati's Ghibli challenging upmarket German cars
Economia

Maserati's Ghibli challenging upmarket German cars

With this car Maserati aims at broadening the brand's appeal satisfying all these clients that are getting bored with other upmarket cars

Did you ever consider changing your Audi, Mercedes-Benz or BMW with a Maserati? Well, it is actually common to consider the luxury Italian brand as a car the upmarket German models cannot compete with. However, this was true until the iconic Italian sports-car maker did not unveil its own upmarket car: the Ghibli.

It is not a compact, but Ghibli is definitely smaller (and cheaper) than usual Maserati, in line with the company's aim to broaden the brand's appeal satisfying all these clients that are getting bored with German cars.

It's interesting to stress that Ghibli, a name coming from the Arabic word for a hot wind from the Sahara, has already been used in the past to name a two-seater supercar in the late '60s first, and an aggressive two-door derivative of the Biturbo thirty years later.

With this new $65,600 car that is going to hit U.S. showrooms in September, Maserati aims at boosting sales eightfold, reaching the target or 50,000 vehicles by 2015. This is actually a realistic purpose, considering that Maserati's new German competitors are now selling more than one million cars a year each.

On the Maserati website Ghibli is introduced as a car that can open a new page in the history of the Italian brand, offering its customers the chance to enjoy "the pleasure and thrill of pure luxury car" every day. At the same time, the new Italian upmarket model is powered by an innovative 3 liter Twin Turbo V6 engine, capable of achieving lower fuel consumption and emissions, while still delivering stunningly sporty performance. Last but not least, it is worth stressing that from a standstill, the Maserati Ghibli springs to 100 km/h in 5.6 seconds, and its top speed is 263 km/h.

This new car is definitely well equipped to approach the market in the best way possible, and indeed Maserati said earlier this month that it already had more than 2,200 orders for the Ghibli.

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Claudia Astarita

Amo l'Asia in (quasi) tutte le sue sfaccettature, ecco perché cerco di trascorrerci più tempo possibile. Dopo aver lavorato per anni come ricercatrice a New Delhi e Hong Kong, per qualche anno osserverò l'Oriente dalla quella che è considerata essere la città più vivibile del mondo: Melbourne. Insegno Culture and Business Practice in Asia ad RMIT University,  Asia and the World a The University of Melbourne e mi occupo di India per il Centro Militare di Studi Strategici di Roma. Su Twitter mi trovate a @castaritaHK, via email a astarita@graduate.hku.hk

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