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The troubled Alfa Romeo Giulia needs serious help [UPDATE]

UPDATE: An Alfa Romeo US spokesman responded to this article with the following statement: The safety concerns expressed in the story are false. The all-new 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia is designed and engineered to meet or exceed all federal safety regulations. The Alfa Romeo Giulia will begin production for the North American market in the late second-quarter of this year. Alfa Romeo will have a full product portfolio of premium vehicles that includes plans for (8) all-new Alfa Romeo vehicles by 2020. The product launches are prioritized by segment volumes starting this year with the Alfa Romeo Giulia production for North America starting in late Q2, followed by the Midsize-UV – the 2nd largest premium segment in North America. Even on the day you dragged them kicking and screaming and gesticulating wildly to a table full of concrete evidence, Alfa Romeo executives will never admit the Giulia program is going through a tough patch. But it is. Reports say the Giulia, on the eve of production, didn't just fail one internal crash test, but failed the front, side and rear impact tests. Alfa denies it. Automotive News published a report last week saying two suppliers had insisted the Giulia, on the eve of production, didn't just fail one internal crash test, but failed the front-, side-, and rear-impact tests. A third supplier source told us the same thing. Alfa is denying it. It was due on sale in Europe late last year and was supposed to be here in the next month or two. But it wasn't, and it won't. It was to be headlined by a twin-turbo V6 that reportedly howled its way around the Nurburgring 14 seconds faster than the BMW M3 could manage. That second part is only true if you believe it's fair to compare a full lap in a standard BMW M3 with a favorable accumulation of sector times to a development prototype Giulia with 220 pounds stripped out of it and rolling on hand-cut racing slicks. No, me neither. A Promising Start The Giulia's all-new architecture was developed in just two years by a skunkworks of young engineers headed by Fiat's engineering prince, Philippe Krief, and (bafflingly) sited inside Maserati's headquarters complex in Modena, about three hours from Alfa Romeo's own Turin HQ.

Maserati Ghibli overtakes Levante, headed for Shanghai?

While earlier reports indicated that the next Maserati product out of the gate would be the Levante SUV, Motor Trend is now reporting that the Audi A7-shaped Ghibli has cut in line. Word is that we may see the new Ghibli as early as the Shanghai Motor Show in April.
Citing unnamed sources, MT predicts that the minds at Maserati now see a more pressing need to fight off the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 5 Series than to go after luxury utes. However, if our spy shots of Ghibli prototypes are anything to go on, it's also likely that the sub-Quattroporte Maser won't be a traditional sedan. The car above's long nose, low roof and brief, sloping rear deck all bring to mind Audi's lovely A7, Meaning the Ghibli may fall into the always murky four-door-coupe/luxury hatchback genre.
Bi-turbocharged iterations of both a V6 and a V8 should make up the early powertrain choices for the Maserati, meaning the top-spec Ghibli should have loads of shove to match its promised good looks.

Recharge Wrap-up: DIY Tesla charging arm, Tesla vs. Maserati smackdown

A Tesla Model S owner built his own version of an automatic charging arm. Assumingly inspired by the creepy, snake-like prototype Tesla previewed a while back, Deepak Mital's autonomous robot – which he calls the Evtron – finds the plug on his Model S and connects the cable to begin charging. Mital says he plans to open source his design once he's finished. It may not be as "sensual" as Tesla's prototype, but people are less likely to flee it in terror. See the Evtron in action in the video above, and read more at Electrek. A Maserati dealership has taken down a comparison between the Ghibli and the Tesla Model S after a thrashing from the EV community. First of all, the Tesla corner pointed out that the listed price of the Model S 60 at $89,320 is misleading, as the current model starts at $66,000 (a loaded 2015 could be optioned up to the price stated by Maserati, but to call that a fair comparison to the $69,800 Ghibli is highly debatable). Other, older Tesla specs also angered the EV supporters. After a Reddit post and a subsequent backlash toward Maserati of Kirkland, the dealership removed the comparison from its website. Read more at Electrek. A new report predicts that the EV charging system market will generate $8.02 billion by 2022. The report from Allied Market Research, titled "World Electric Vehicle Charging System Market," says that the market will see a CAGR of 30.7 percent from 2016 to 2022. In terms of region, Europe will dominate the market, and home charging systems will outpace public chargers. Forces like unstable fuel prices and government programs to reduce carbon emissions will spur EV sales, which, in turn, will boost the market for charging systems. Read more in the press release below. Electric Vehicle Charging System Market is Estimated to Generate $8.02 Billion by 2022 A new report by Allied Market Research titled, "World Electric Vehicle Charging System Market", forecasts that the world electric vehicle charging system market would generate revenue of $8.02 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 30.7% during the forecast period, 2016-2022. In 2015, Europe was the highest revenue-generating region owing to the increasing penetration of home and commercial charging systems in countries such as the Netherland, Denmark, UK and France.