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Maserati's Super Bowl spot may have cost more than $700 per car [w/video]

It's no secret that Super Bowl ad time is very, very expensive, with a 30-second spot for this year's game costing around $4 million. For Maserati, which aired a 90-second spot showing off its new Ghibli sedan during this year's game, the price was considerably above $4 million, though.
Automotive News estimates that the spot cost Maserati the equivalent of over $700 for each of the 15,400 vehicles sold last year. That works out to nearly $11 million. It may have paid off, though, as search traffic for Maserati and the Ghibli in particular saw a significant spike following the airing of the stylish commercial, and the brand's total sales were already on target for record levels before the ad aired.
The Ghibli "deserved a wide audience platform such as the Super Bowl," according to Maserati's chief marketing officer, Saad Chehab. The sports sedan is Maserati's most affordable entry, with prices starting around $67,000, moving the brand further downmarket than it's ever ventured before.

Maserati switching to in-house twin-turbo V6 and turbo four

Automotive News has been able to put some output figures to the two primary engines that will power Maserati's renaissance. Last year the Italian luxury brand sent notice that it would terminate its deal to with Ferrari to use the Maranello-sourced F160 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 and F154 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8. As new Maserati models appear and current models are overhauled, the brand will begin installing either Maserati's own 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, or an FCA-sourced 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. The V6 will greet the world from the middle of the MC20 supercar poised for debut in September, assuming nothing goes worse with the world than it already has. Rumor from Mopar Insiders and Allpar forums is that Maserati began building its V6 based on Alfa Romeo's 690T V6. Alfa Romeo puts the 690T in the Stelvio and Giulia Quadrifoglio, the engine's development having started seven years ago with Ferrari's F154 V8 as its heart. Tuned for speed, peak output could reach 542 horsepower. After making its home in the racy coupe, the V6 will also serve a new midsize Maserati crossover coming next year, as well as the next GranTurismo coupe and GranCabrio convertible. In the crossover, power is apparently limited to no more than 523 horses. In Maserati's new V6, one piece of technology that permits such high output and emissions friendliness is turbulent jet ignition (TJI). German supplier Mahle has been developing the technology for at least 10 years, and put it to use in Ferrari's Formula 1 engine about five years ago, after which Japan's Super GT manufacturers picked it up. Instead of a spark plug igniting fuel directly in the combustion chamber, TJI places the spark plug and an injector nozzle at the top of a "jet ignition pre-chamber assembly." The injector shoots a mist of gasoline into the pre-chamber, the spark plug fires, and the force of ignition in the pre-chamber sprays the combustion through tiny holes at the bottom of the pre-chamber into the cylinder as the piston rises. Mahle says the shorter burn and improved combustion spread means cleaner-burning gas engines that emit fewer emissions.   AN says that the "new V-6 engine will be 'electrified' in some form." It's not clear if that means all versions of the V6 will get some sort of hybrid assistance, or if — as had been thought — there will be a non-hybrid unit.

Stellantis says it has no intention of selling Maserati

  Stellantis has no intention of selling its luxury vehicle business Maserati or aggregating the unit with other Italian luxury groups, the Jeep maker said on Tuesday. "Stellantis restates unwavering commitment to Maserati's bright future as the unique luxury brand of the 14 Stellantis brands," the carmaker said in a statement, while also reaffirming commitment to its entire portfolio. Carlos Tavares, the Netherlands-based automaker's chief, warned last week that if the company's loss-making brands "don't make money, we'll shut them down". The comments came after Stellantis delivered worse-than-expected results for the first half. The Chrysler-parent does not release figures for individual brands, except for Maserati, which reported an adjusted operating loss of 82 million euros for the first half of the year. Some analysts had previously noted that Maserati could possibly be a target for a sale by Stellantis, which the company's chief financial officer did not rule out, while other brands such as Lancia or DS might be at risk of being scrapped, given their marginal contribution to the group's overall sales.