Maserati Levante on sale in UK from £54,335

The 2016 Maserati Levante will start from £54,335 when it goes on sale in the UK this June.

The Italian SUV will first be sold as a diesel only model, but a Ferrari-built 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine is currently being considered for the UK market. A hybrid version is also due to be added to the European market in 2018, and it’ll likely be sold in the UK when it does.

Maserati announced the new car’s starting price at a star-studded event in South West London, where it also confirmed that the new car would be Maserati’s only SUV.

The firm will offer it with either a Sport Pack or a Luxury Pack, each costing £60,285.

Speaking to Autocar in an exclusive interview, European managing director Giulio Pastore said that in order not to tread on the toes of its sister Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands, it would maintain its current line-up, with the addition of the Alfieri.

“We don’t want to go down the Porsche route of creating a smaller Porsche Macan SUV. We don’t want to conflict with the other brands of FCA, so we will keep the Levante as our only SUV.”

Pastore also said that he expects the Levante to account for 50% of Maserati’s sales, but that the car maker wants to limit total production of its range to 75,000 units per year. That means the car maker hopes to sell 37,500 Levantes in 2018.

“It is true we want to reach a cap of 75,000 cars in two years, and we believe to keep Maserati exclusive we should keep to that level. That is the perfect level for us to maintain profit, and to generate money to invest back into the company.”

Pastore said that despite the fact that 75,000 cars was more than 10 times the annual sales figure Maserati achieved just half a decade ago, the brand wasn’t at risk of damaging its exclusivity. “There are millions and millions of cars in the world. 75,000 is nothing. Compare that to Porsche, who has grown to [nearly 200,000] sales per year.”