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Did you know that an electric high performance luxury four-seater grand tourer convertible exists? Most people aren’t aware of this, but, yes, such a car is actually on sale: meet the Maserati GranCabrio Folgore.
You can now buy EVs in all shapes and sizes, but we’ve not had an electric four-seat high performance convertible – until now. Meet the Maserati GranCabrio Folgore, following in the footsteps of the brand’s history of iconic convertibles (or ‘spyders’), complete with 761 hp of power, 1,350 Nm of torque, 180 mph top speed, and 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds.
Let’s start with design. The Maserati GranCabrio Folgore has head-turning supercar looks, especially with the roof down (although it’s worth noting that brighter colours than the ‘Grigio Incognito’ (grey) paint of our test car are available). The cabin has a luxury feel, accentuated by the light Ghiaccio Leather (a £1,585 option) and high gloss carbon fibre with copper thread trim (a £2,115 option) of our test car.
The GranCabrio Folgore has four seats; the rear seats are full size, but don’t expect much legroom for rear passengers – or much boot space; despite the car’s 4,966 mm length, the boot is only 114-151 litres in size, depending on whether the cargo spacer is up or down.
The roof opens automatically by one swipe of the control on the bottom touchscreen, a process which takes just 14 seconds (or 18 seconds including the windows). The roof can also be operated on the move at speeds of up to 31 mph.
An ‘airscarf neck warmer’ – activated via a button on the bottom touchscreen with the option of three speeds – blows warm air from the seats onto the driver and passenger, allowing the car to be driven with the top down even in cold weather. A wind stopper (an option), which can be fitted behind the front seats and folded up in the boot, aims to reduce turbulence inside the passenger compartment.
The GranCabrio Folgore has a 92.5 kWh gross (83 kWh net) battery which rather than being a flat pack under the car, mainly has battery modules around the central tunnel to avoid them being under the seats; as a result, the seats and the driving position can be lower, as in a petrol GT, and the weight is in the centre of the car. The three electric motors have been developed from Formula E technology.
The body makes extensive use of lightweight materials – over 65% of the car is made of aluminium – resulting in the GranCabrio weighing just 80 kg more than the Folgore coupe version.
The Maserati GranCabrio Folgore sits low down, very close to the road. It has two separate electric motors on the rear axle, and one electric motor on the front axle. This all-wheel drive set-up can also be rear-wheel drive thanks to torque vectoring (400 hp can be delivered to a single rear wheel). Total power output is 761 hp and maximum torque is 1,350 Nm, with a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 180 mph. Weight distribution is 50/50 front/rear.
All this translates to explosive performance, with rewarding handling that can also be entertaining with the traction control switched off on wet roads. The driving sensations are heightened even further with the top down. Despite all this, the GranCabrio Folgore is also quiet, refined and comfortable on long motorway journeys.
There are four drive modes, selected by turning a rotary dial on the bottom right of the steering wheel: Max Range, GT, Sport and Corsa. You can also adjust the suspension settings by pressing a button in the middle of the drive mode dial. GT mode is the default drive mode when the car is started. In Corsa mode, Italian for ‘Race’, the suspension damping level increases, and the car’s ground clearance reduces further (thanks to the air suspension) to maximise vertical downforce – best to avoid speed bumps and even bumpy roads in this drive mode. Corsa also enables additional features to be adjusted via the touchscreen, such as torque vectoring and traction control. In Sport or Corsa modes, the driver has the option to enable Launch Control to achieve maximum possible acceleration.
Gears are selected via buttons on the dashboard (we’d probably prefer a more traditional gear selector for a sports car). There are also very large paddle shifters behind the steering wheel (which don’t move with the steering wheel when you turn it) which can be used to adjust the level of brake regeneration.
The steering is sharp but it doesn’t feel as pure as some sports cars, and the lock isn’t particularly tight.
In the cabin there’s a 12.2-inch digital driver’s display, a 12.3-inch central touchscreen, and a second 8.8-inch screen underneath, which mainly houses climate controls. There’s also the ‘Maserati Digital Clock’.
There are user-friendly shortcuts on the left of the central touchscreen for Home, Media, Nav, Carplay, Car and Apps. In excellent news, driver assistance systems don’t intervene annoyingly like they do in the majority of new cars.
The Maserati GranCabrio Folgore has an official WLTP combined electric driving range of 273 miles. During a week on test, real world range, if driven sensibly with the roof up, was averaging 248 miles. Consumption (WLTP) is 2.8 miles/kWh.
Thanks to its 800V electrical architecture, the GranCabrio Folgore has an impressive maximum DC ultra-rapid charging rate of 270 kW, which should give a 20% to 80% charge in 18 minutes, or a 62-mile top-up in five minutes. With a DC Booster, increasing the output voltage of a charger station from 400 to 800 volts, the Maserati can use an 800V or a 400V rapid charger.
AC charging at 22 kW should give a 62-mile top-up in one hour.
The Maserati GranCabrio Folgore is priced at £180,770. Our test car had options of Granata Power Soft Top (£660), Ghiaccio Leather (£1,585), High gloss carbon fibre with copper thread trim (£2,115), Wind Deflector (£720), Anodised Dark Copper Callipers (£1,480) and Advanced Driver Assistance Full Pack (£5,160), taking the total price to £194,120. A Sonus faber sound system is included as standard, but a head-up display is only available as an option.
The Maserati GranTurismo Folgore is available in six colours: Bianco Astro, Nero Assoluto, Blu Modena, Verde Giada, Grigio Incognito and Grigio Maratea Matte. The canvas roof is available in five colours: Black, Blue Marine, Titan Grey, Greige and Granata.
A GranTurismo coupe version is also available.
The Maserati GranCabrio Folgore is a highly impressive machine; it’s great that the brand has produced this car when some rivals are lagging behind with EVs. It offers wind-in-the-hair motoring in a high performance four-seater convertible with a zero-tailpipe emission electric powertrain. The statistics are amazing: 761 hp, 1,350 Nm, 180 mph, 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds. And then there’s the head-turning supercar looks. If you have £200,000 burning a hole in your bank account and you’re looking for an electric car that’s unique, the Maserati GranCabrio Folgore could be the answer; it’s awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 9 out of 10.
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