Driven: 2025 Maserati GranCabrio Gas vs. EV

Head or heart? Which of the two makes your major decisions?

It's a question Maserati is asking as it releases two versions of the GranCabrio: One driven by internal combustion, the other by electricity only.

Outwardly the pair are near-identical, with only subtle differences to set them apart.

In silhouette the new GranCabrio appears to be an evolution of the previous model. "Visual longevity," Maserati says. Look a little closer though, and you'll note MC20-style vertical headlights and a sculptural single-piece hood. In Italian they call it "cofango," which certainly sounds sexier than "clamshell." It's made of a single sheet of aluminum and apparently caused Maserati no end of trouble to find a supplier. The tail lamps are a nod to the boomerang design of the 3200GT.

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It's from the rear that it's easiest to tell the electric model, dubbed Folgore, apart from its ICE-poewered Trofeo sibling, chiefly because it doesn't have any tail pipes. Move to the front and you'll spot a slightly different grille design and a fascia with fewer cooling vents. The Folgore gets a unique aero design for its wheels and, finally, there's the badging, with the words Folgore and the trademark trident logo picked out in copper, while the Trofeo uses chrome.

The interior design is shared, although Folgore buyers can opt for a recycled Econyl material complete with delicate laser etching which is unique to Maserati.

When it comes to propulsion, however, the duo could not be more different. Under the cofango of the Trofeo sits a twin-turbo V-6. It's essentially a detuned version of the three-liter Nettuno engine that debuted in the MC20. With a few changes, including a wet sump oiling system instead of a dry one, it loses around 80hp and a thousand rpm in the transition from supercar to GT (or, in this case, GC) powerplant. There's still 542 hp to play with, however, and it's delivered to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission controlled by chunky aluminum paddles.

Those same shifters appear in the Folgore, but here they're used to set the regenerative braking, because, being electric there are no gears to change. Instead, there are two rear motors-one for each wheel-and a single motor for the front axle. Developed through Maserati's experience in single-seater Formula E racing each can deliver 400 hp, although with the installed 92.5 kWh battery pack the maximum ever delivered at the wheels is a total of 760 hp. Overall weight is 2340 kg (5159 lbs) making the Folgore around 80 kg (166 lbs) heavier than the Trofeo. Both cars use a structure of 65 percent aluminum with some magnesium and steel also in the mix. They share a double-wishbone front/multilink rear suspension layout with air springs and electronic damping. Also common are Brembo six-pot front brakes and four-caliper rears, with tire sizes of 265/35 ZR20 at the front and 295/30 ZR21 for the back.

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Over around 100 miles of driving, starting on the shores of Italy's Lake Maggiore, climbing into the mountains, mixing short stretches of highway with steep climbs and descents, switchbacks, and sweepers, the differing characters of each become abundantly clear.

I start in the Trofeo, crawling through the picturesque lakeside towns in comfort mode, the V-6 barely audible, air suspension soaking up speed bumps and the imperfections of roads recently ravaged by a winter freeze. In fact, there's still snow on several of the surrounding peaks. The transmission quietly goes about its business and shifts are barely noticeable.

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As the road turns inland and begins to climb, I work my way progressively through the other drive modes, with the start-up GT setting providing a good balance of performance and ride comfort, while Sport and Corsa drop the ride height and stiffen up the suspension. Meanwhile, I've opted to paddle my own gears, extending the engine to its 7000-rpm redline when possible. Now, with exhaust valves open, the V-6 makes a glorious sound. Raspy and racy, it's more trebly than a bass-heavy V-8, and includes an accompaniment of turbo intake whoosh to boot.

With the roof down it's all the more visceral-emphasizing, perhaps even exaggerating, the sense of speed. It's certainly a rapid car, capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in 3.4 seconds and topping out at 196 mph, but once in a while on a tighter hairpin there is just a moment of hesitation before the turbos spool, everything hooks up, and I'm thrown toward the next turn.

It's not small and it's not light, but the GranCabrio is far more agile than I imagined it would be, turning into corners keenly and hanging on hard. There's just an occasional shimmy from the rear end under the most extreme acceleration, and on its stiffest suspension setting the ride is a bit abrupt, while Corsa mode is just a tad low for the sometimes broken mountain roads.

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Later, on a section of highway, there's a brief chance to discover the Gran Cabrio's long-legged abilities. At 80 mph or more, there's little buffeting, even without a rear wind deflector in place. With the roof up (achieved with slightly over-complex swipe and hold of the touchscreen) it's remarkably quiet, just the faintest whistle from where the front and rear windows join. You certainly could cross continents in great comfort, in all weather. If there's a chill in the air, powerful air scarfs fitted to the heated seats help keep the cold at bay. Today it's the opposite though, the so the air conditioning is on high and the seat fans set to cool. If you tire of the distant sounds of internal combustion, an award-winning Sonos Faber 3D audio system is standard.

The cabin is wonderful, although the Ronald McDonald combination of bright yellow exterior and red interior of one test car might not be to all tastes. The mix of leather, carbon, and aluminum is well executed and what plastic remains is generally high quality. The central screens are a good size and there's no lag in their operation, but there are an awful lot of functions and not enough time to explore them all. The instrument cluster is also digital and adopts a saddle design to fully utilize the available space. Different drive modes deliver different design and information and all seem pretty easy to read. What's not so immediately clear is the head up display. In bright sunlight it's barely visible. In fact, it takes me about ten minutes of driving to even realize it is there at all.

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The only other notable gripes are transmission switches set in the center console in a piano black finish. With familiarity it may become second-nature, but reaching over to shift from drive to reverse when parking doesn't feel intuitive. Trunk space isn't enormous and you have to manually move a divider to get maximum stowage if the roof is in place and then put it back to be able to drop the top.

Specs: 2025 Maserati GranCabrio Trofeo

• Price: $193,995 (base MSRP with destination)
• Powertrain: 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6, eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission
• Horsepower: 542 hp @6500 rpm
• Torque: 479 lbft @3000 rpm
• Layout: All-wheel drive, two-seat cabriolet
• Curb weight: 4317 pounds
• Fuel economy: 19 mpg average
• 0-60 mph: 3.4 seconds

The layout in the electric Folgore is the same, as are three of the four drive modes. There's the default GT setting, which gives up to 80 percent power, Sport and Corsa for the full beans, and a Max range option which reduces power and limits top speed to 80mph to help reach the maximum 447 km (278 miles) as predicted by Europe's WLPT testing. Over the mixed route, however, around 340 km or 211 miles was looking more likely.

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The Gran Cabrio Folgore is the first Maserati to use 800-volt architecture, which means that it can charge at up 270 kW. Find a suitable rapid charger and you could juice up from 10 to 80 percent in 18 minutes or add a 100-km (62-mile) boost in as little as five minutes. That opens up the opportunity for genuine Grand Touring-by the time you've stopped for an espresso you could be good to go again for at least another couple of hours.

At highway speeds the Folgore offers an even more refined experience than the already-impressive Trofeo. It silently breezes along and the miles simply waft by. Like the Grecale Folgore, there is actually a little synthesized sound, but especially with the roof down, you'll hardly notice it. It's supposed to increase with each driving mode, but I can't say I'm ever really aware of the rumbling ramping up.

That may be because I'm concentrating hard as I head into the hills again, this time on the legendary Mottorone road. Locals call it the "motoring" road and it's obvious why. As it climbs to a viewpoint over the valley, it throws every type of turn at you, with barely a straight in between.

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The Trofeo was good, but the Folgore is on another level. The thrust from its three motors is brutal as you'd expect, but the car's composure, nimbleness and sheer ground-covering ability is wild. It's heavier than the Trofeo, but feels lighter, carrying its mass of batteries low in the chassis in a T-shape. The three motors allow precision torque vectoring so that there's always just the right amount of oomph at each wheel, and the result is a machine that dives into corners and then rockets out of them. Unlike the Trofeo, you really feel the instantaneous torque on the front axle helping to haul you from apex to exit. The Trofeo's brakes are strong, but with the addition of energy-recovery, the Folgore stops even more impressively with no sense of extreme weight transfer. There are four regenerative braking settings offered by the paddles behind the wheel, the most severe of which offers near-one-pedal driving. I find that on these tight and twisty roads, one notch back from that works pretty well to smooth the transition between throttle and brake without unsettling the flow.

Specs: 2025 Maserati GranCabrio Folgore

• Price: $206,995 (base MSRP with destination)
• Powertrain: 92.5 kWh battery, 3 electric motors
• Horsepower: 760 hp
• Torque: 1069 lbft
• Layout: All-wheel drive, two-seat cabriolet
• Curb weight: 5159 pounds
• Range: 278 miles (European WLTP)
• 0-60 mph: 2.8 seconds

Where the Trofeo sometimes gives the feeling that it's moving faster than it is in reality, the Folgore does the opposite. The lack of aural triggers mean it's all too easy to hit ridiculous speeds only identifiable by the digits on the dash. For the record, it will reach 60 mph from a standstill in a stomach-churning 2.8 seconds and achieve a battery-bashing vMax of 180 mph.

On almost every measure the Folgore is the superior product. It comfortably outperforms its stablemate, and that's also reflected in the price. You could get into a Trofeo for $192,000 but it'll take $205,000 before extras for the genuinely electrifying experience of the Folgore.

That's a huge amount of money, but currently it is in a class of one. It's the sole four-seater, fully-electric, luxury convertible on sale, and if your head overrules your heart, that makes it the only choice.

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