Maserati culls electric MC20 citing lack of demand
The manufacturer never seemed in a desperate rush to launch its battery-powered supercar - now it won't
Maserati’s travails do not get any easier to read about. The brand was already said to be reeling from Stellantis’ decision to write off more than a billion pounds of badly needed investment money; now, partly as a result of that fallout, it has effectively confirmed that the electric version of the MC20 will never see the light of day.
‘The project was stopped due to the current forecast for insufficient demand in the super sports car market for a battery electric vehicle,’ read a terse official statement, neatly summing up the problem with virtually every battery-powered super sports car ever, but also reflecting an issue experienced company-wide, as evidenced by a sales slump that Maserati has blamed partly on China’s downturn.
Broadly speaking, news that the MC20 Folgore has been filed in the bin is a shame - we drove the GranTurismo version in the UK just last week, and quite liked its 761hp extravagance. Based on the fact that the MC20 is comfortably the best car Maserati makes (by about a thousand country miles), the thought of its supercar with similarly gutsy electric motors was not, on paper, an abhorrent one. Even allowing for the usual hefty provisos.
But customers do not deal in abstracts, and the fact that the battery-electric version has seemingly been just over the horizon since Maserati launched the MC20 - and was absolutely a part of its strategy for winding up combustion cars come 2030 - yet has failed to generate much interest among buyers in half a decade of build-up, suggests that cancelling the new model was not a particularly tough decision.
Nevertheless, quite where Maserati goes from here is anyone’s guess. While a comparatively low-volume supercar would never have been the lynchpin of Stellantis’ plan for reviving the brand, its failure to materialise casts a shadow over other future models like the new Levante and Quattroporte. An ongoing lack of interest in high-end EVs is certainly not limited to Maserati, but its current roadmap appears even more at odds with customer demand than its direct rivals.
The first sign that it will join them in frantically back pedalling from its current position is news that it will update the existing MC20 lineup - which ought to excite everyone not interested in battery power, especially if it takes a leaf from the GT2’s book, a swifter, track-biased variant that has enjoyed almost universal acclaim, not least from us. It would also guarantee the presence of the Nettuno V6 under a Maserati badge for the foreseeable future. With any luck, this light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel vibe will also be felt by Stellantis in short order.
I am not anti-EV, but for me the heart (and soul) of a car or motorbike is its engine. I just can’t get excited about electric engines. I am probably just old.
I am not anti-EV, but for me the heart (and soul) of a car or motorbike is its engine. I just can’t get excited about electric engines. I am probably just old.
I am not anti-EV, but for me the heart (and soul) of a car or motorbike is its engine. I just can’t get excited about electric engines. I am probably just old.
A supercar should evoke the soul with the sight, smell and sound of a combustion engine.
Yes, an EV Supercar would be blisteringly quick, but lacks any form of drama that a supercar buyer desires.
Sensuous is a word that comes to mind, when gazing at the lines of this car.
I do believe there's an opportunity here, despite the reporting on grey skies, grim numbers, etc.
Consider the following as rough ideas, conversation starters:
a) Go hybrid. To the Nettuno V6 add a considerable amount of electric motor. This may be bolted to the ICE powertrain or serve only the front wheels. Software allows boost on-the-fly or rolling into the drive in the wee hours, respecting the neighbours, etc.
b) Remove cost. The current MC20 offers creature comforts in the cabin, screen with apps, optional carbon fibre, and so on. Banish all that. Design in the name of driver experience. As part of this, can we have wheels that are a bit smaller? And tyres that are less of a watch strap?
c) A wild card and some here will disagree: Offer this variant on short-term PCH and require punters to apply. For the first year anyway. The campaign is designed to merchandise the enjoyment brought by Maserati - not just on track, but also on weekends as well as longer journeys, and at a total cost of ownership that brings the car to the attention of a wider audience.
As said above, sports and supercars are highly emotional purchases. EVs make good daily drivers but no-one is ever going to say an EV is anywhere near an ICE sports/super/hyper car emotionally.
Didn't Rimac say there was minimal demand for their supercar and they were going back to ICE too?
I am not anti-EV, but for me the heart (and soul) of a car or motorbike is its engine. I just can’t get excited about electric engines. I am probably just old.
Definition of engine from the internet:
a machine for converting any of various forms of energy into mechanical force and motion
So the electric motor in an EV that converts the stored electric charge into forward motion is an engine.
That's ignoring the wider market challenges Maserati have - I assume it's going 'reasonably well' in parts of Europe/US?
Anyone else remember when the MC20 came out and they claimed it weighed less than 1500kg, but then evo put it on a set of scales and it was actually 1700kg, and then Maserati said "yeah, it's overbuilt because the structure has to be strong enough for the upcoming EV version" ?
Sensible decision though. Even from an environmental perspective it's not obvious that cars in this class would do enough mileage in their lifetime to recover the energy spent making the battery pack.
I do think an EV supercar could possibly work, but the MC20 Folgore wasn't going to be it. I'm thinking of a clean-sheet EV architecture that's a bit lighter, really 'out there' jaw-dropping styling using the flexibility of an electric drivetrain, one motor per wheel with amazing handling (and feel, not just lateral G). 200 miles range at 70mph would be enough.
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