Maserati Grecale Folgore review

Adaptive air suspension comes as standard on the Grecale Folgore, and has been specially tweaked to make up for the weight of the battery. We’re not convinced that Maserati has done enough, however.

In the comfort-oriented modes there’s noticeable float-and-wallow to the body control, despite higher frequency intrusions still sending shivers and thumps into the cabin via the standard 20-inch alloys wheels and Bridgestone Potenza rubber.

I like the lightness of touch and rear-driven nature of the current generation of petrol-powered Maseratis, but this feels nowhere near as harmonious.

Illya Verpraet

Road Tester

Sport and Corsa modes tighten up the body control but don’t solve the heave and head-toss, meaning that the Grecale feels too softly sprung yet too harshly damped regardless of which mode you choose. This is all subtle enough that it may not be a deal breaker if you’ve really fallen for the Grecale Folgore’s slick looks, big pace and useful interior space. But the Lotus Eletra or the (granted, slightly smaller) Porsche Macan are both far better to drive.

The steering is very typical of Maserati - light, with lovely progression but without the feedback and texture that you want, and it feels overly light and disconnected when the car is weighted up mid-corner. Basically, the Grecale seems to have all the inertia of a heavy car but none of the poise that comes from a low centre of gravity. It's fast, and it's confident enough at a normal canter, which is likely to be all that it really needs to be. But in any more testing driving than that, you simply don’t have much confidence in the chassis - and we'd say that's a problem in such an accelerative car.

Not that there’s much nuance to the handling, anyway. The front and rear motors are identical and there’s not much in the way of clever torque distribution going on, so it always feels predominantly front-driven.