Ferrari To Stop Assembling Engines For Maserati Lineup:

In the past few months, Maserati CEO Harald Wester has suggested that in the future Maserati will not use Ferrari-sourced engines. At the Ferrari First-Quarter (Q1) Conference Call, Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri confirmed this and shed more light on the situation by saying that current contract will not be renewed and will expire by 2021 or 2022. 

Currently, Maserati is using two different Ferrari turbocharged engine families for their sedans and SUV lineup. One is Ferrari F160 which is a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged 60° V6 which uses a revised Chrysler Pentastar engine block with 350 or 430 horsepower, while the other one is the full-bred twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 Ferrari F154 engine with 530, 550, or 590 horsepower outputs.

It’s important to note that the changes will not be as dramatic as some would think. Maserati might not use Ferrari assembled engines, but they will continue to use at least one Ferrari-engineered engine or at least an engine which has Ferrari roots. Of course, we are talking about the twin-turbocharged Alfa Romeo 90° V6 engine. The Alfa Romeo version is called Alfa Romeo 690T and develops 510 horsepower in its current form used in the Stelvio and Giulia Quadrifoglio models by Alfa Romeo.

Back in the 2014-2018 plan that was released in mid-2014, the Alfa Romeo engine was previewed as 450 and 520 horsepower outputs in Maserati applications. Now, we hear that the engine could have up to 650 horsepower if it’s used with the upcoming eBooster (electric supercharger) as a P2 hybrid (electric motor on transmission input). Also, it could be used as performance Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) with e-axle for the combined power of more than 700, if not closer to 800 horsepower. 

This engine was developed by a team led by ex-Ferrari engineer Gianluca Pivetti from 2013 to 2015. They took the base design from Ferrari’s F154 V8 engine on which Pivetti also worked to speed up development and bring down the costs. This engine has an uneven firing order and actually acts more like two inline three-cylinder engines joined together, it even has two Engine Control Units (ECUs). It’s done this way so that that cylinder deactivation may be used for improved fuel efficiency.

So this engine should replace all 400+ horsepower V6 engines and V8 engines currently used by Maserati. But what will replace base 3.0-liter V6 with 350 horsepower?

According to our sources, the direct replacement for a 350 horsepower V6 will be a new 2.0-liter “Global Medium Engine” (GME) turbo four-cylinder (T4) Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle (MHEV), which will produce 330 horsepower. That’s a high specific amount of power with 165 horsepower per liter. More than likely, this engine will feature a more advanced mild hybrid setup in comparison to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) current Belt-Start Generator (BSG) systems. P2 electric motor equipped with the eBooster system should come into play to negate turbo lag and to improve fuel efficiency. This engine will also be used as PHEV in some cars. 

FCA’s teams will engineer one of these “new” engines while Ferrari will design the other one. But both will be assembled by FCA Italy at Termoli Engine Plant, which already builds the Alfa Romeo versions. A portion of these engines will be shared with the Alfa Romeo brand.

All-new Maserati models like the upcoming Maserati D-Segment SUV will exclusively use new engines while older models like popular Ghibli sedan, may use a mixture of engines assembled by Ferrari and FCA Italy. Some may wonder why wouldn’t they use the upcoming GME-T6 inline-six cylinder? As we are aware, that engine will be exclusive to FCA US brands.