Maserati is, apparently, not willing to launch new cars that would slot below its two smaller vehicles right now, the Ghibli sedan and the Levante SUV.

“You don’t want to go down. You want to go up”, CEO Harald Wester told Autocar while discussing the brand’s current range and how larger vehicles generate larger profit margins

This is an interesting statement because, last year, Maserati said they were planning a crossover smaller than the Levante. It could have been based around a lightweight platform, sold with a number of different plug-in hybrid powertrains and may have even offered Level 3 autonomous driving functionality.

Inspired by this, Vito Possidente rendered what a smaller Maserati crossover could look like last December. While it was an independent study, it did show how Maserati’s current styling language could be downscaled into a compact SUV.

While such a small model no longer appears to be on the cards, Maserati does still have a number of new vehicles in the works, none more important than the Alfieri. This sexy sports car was introduced in concept form back in 2014 but its production version has been pushed back a number of times, and current plans call for a 2020 Geneva Motor Show launch and sales to commence in either 2021 or 2022.

Underpinning the Alfieri will be an aluminum space frame and it will be sold with a mild hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, and an all-electric powertrain with three electric motors, four-wheel drive, torque vectoring, and 800V battery tech.