Maserati MC20: everything we know about the new sports car from the trident brand

The first Maserati new in five years will arrive next May, as the trident brand itself promises, “the natural evolution” of the Maserati MC12 supercar. Maserati has confirmed that its new sports car, which will arrive in May, will be called MC20.

The new Maserati MC20 will be a “natural evolution” of the limited-edition MC12 supercar, the last model to use the Maserati Corse badge, and has confirmed that it “will return to the world of racing” with the Maserati MC20.

In November, Maserati began testing the car’s powertrain on public roads using a test mule. The Italian firm released a series of photos of a camouflaged machine leaving its Modena factory at night. It says the machine was being used to house a “new propulsion system fully developed and built by Maserati”, which is the first of a new family of engines it is developing.

The firm has not yet confirmed any technical details of the car it will present in May, although it was widely expected to be a production version of the Alfieri 2014 concept, which it committed to put into production in 2018.

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The Maserati MC20 could be inspired by the Alfieri concept

The Alfieri concept was a 2+2 coupé with a front engine, while the test mule appears to be a two-seater with a mid-engine layout. While that raises the possibility that the sports car launching in 2020 is a completely new concept, the test mule appears to be based on the outgoing Alfa Romeo 4C produced by its sister brand rather than an entirely new chassis. This suggests the mule is being used solely to test the new powertrain, rather than giving an indication of the car that will eventually go on sale.

No details about that powertrain have been revealed, although when Maserati recently published details of its updated business plan, it said it was upgrading the Modena production line to accommodate the machine’s “electric powertrain“. It is likely to be a form of hybrid unit, but we also expect to see a fully electric version. The new machine will be the first completely new Maserati launched since 2015.

Following the announcement of the discontinuation of the beautiful and already veteran Maserati GranTurismo, an automotive sculpture that offered everything from an elegant GT with all the luxury and performance suited to sporty driving, to versions close to its single-seaters built for the exciting promotional cups, giving rise to variants such as the imposing Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, the Italian brand wants to keep its followers’ excitement high by showing the first images of one of the test vehicles that will give rise to a new model.

A spiritual replacement that could come from the Maserati prototype that has already been driven on open roads, though at elusive hours to avoid prying eyes and, above all, the photographs and videos of onlookers who might have come across a mule as eye-catching as this one, sporting a vinyl wrap splashed with tridents, M and X.

As shown in the images provided by the brand, we are talking about a replacement in the hierarchy, niches or functionalities of the models the brand currently sells, from the Maserati Levante SUV, two of whose variants you can read about in our road test on our website, to its two high-end saloons, passing through the gap left by the late GranTurismo, and its convertible version, the GranCabrio.

It is between the popular SUVs and the stylish saloons that the model derived from the Maserati prototype is aimed, although the true successor to the GranTurismo will be the firm’s first electric car, the Maserati Alfieri.

Undoubtedly, the word that best fits the future production car from Maserati is “responsibility”. That of breaking with the past and improving on what is known.

Due to the break-up or the agreement that, as brands of the FCA group, Fiat, had with Ferrari, the manufacturer of dream racing machines that built the vast majority of the petrol engines in the cars bearing the trident on all four sides, the new engines must make people forget the past linked to their Modenese neighbours.

For that reason, and given the size and layout of the Maserati prototype, we speak of a spiritual successor because we expect this car to have a new petrol engine, which could be located immediately behind the two only occupants travelling in the test vehicle.