El tridente’s

All red interiors and a trident on the grille are something we've come to expect on svelte grand tourers and sedans, but how does it fare on an SUV? We get behind the wheel of Maserati's most volume-focused product

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Maserati has always been the wildcard in the luxury SUV game. It's the brand that, for decades, has prioritised theatre over logic. Where the Germans engineered perfection into submission and the Brits discovered that excess sells, Maserati leaned into drama, heritage, and occasion. That approach, however, hasn’t always translated well to India, where practicality, reliability, and resale tend to matter just as much as badge value.

Enter the Maserati Grecale — the SUV tasked with changing that narrative, or at the very least, softening its edges. Billed as Maserati's most India-friendly SUV yet, the Grecale is smaller and more approachable than the Levante, yet big enough to feel substantial in a garage full of Cayennes, Macans, and X5s. It starts at a not-so-approachable Rs 1.31 crore, climbing to Rs 2.05 crore for the full-fat Trofeo, but we're driving the Modena trim — the so-called “sweet spot” of the range, where performance, luxury, and usability are meant to converge.

On paper, it looks promising: 325bhp, 450Nm, a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol mild-hybrid engine, and a ZF eight-speed gearbox that’s as close to a universal truth as automotive engineering gets. But numbers are one thing. Maseratis are supposed to make you feel something, and that’s where the Grecale has to deliver.

You notice it the moment you see it in the metal. At 4.85 metres long, it sits perfectly between the Porsche Macan (4.73m) and Cayenne (4.92m), which is no accident. The stance is squat, confident, and athletic without tipping into cartoonish aggression. Up front, the concave grille dominates, proudly wearing the trident. The headlights are slim, the haunches are taut, and the profile is punctuated by Maserati’s trademark triple vents — an understated nod to the brand’s heritage.