Maserati Levante, the first SUV of the famed Italian carmaker, to make debut in March 2016

Maserati has officially announced the rollout of its first SUV, called Levante, at the Geneva Motor Show which is scheduled in March 2016.

The successful launch of the new Bentley Bentayga and people’s increasing interest made the luxury SUV segment reconfirm its potential. Maserati wants to follow closely the rival Bentley and announced that the first SUV in the history of the brand will come into public view next spring.

Maserati Levante is a 4×4 model to be be unveiled at Geneva Motor Show 2016. Maserati CEO Harald Wester said that model’s testing will start soon, and the first unit dedicated to clients should pop up at the end of February.

Furthermore, Wester said that Maserati’s SUV will benefit from a hybrid version. It will be introduced later and powered by both a gasoline engine and an electric one. The configuration will be replicated also on the hybrid versions of models Ghibli and Quattroporte, but not earlier than 2018.

The official from Maserati has not refrained from talking about the future of Gran Turismo and Gran Cabrio models which already reached the end of their lifetimes. Italians are already working on substitutes, scheduled to make debuts alonside new V8 engines that are capable of delivering up to 560 horsepower.