Maserati GranTurismo Folgore - long-term review

All this fuss about Ferrari’s first EV coming in 2026, and we forgot you can already have something pure-electric, supercar-fast and vaguely practical with a storied Italian badge on the grill. Yes, the Maserati GranTurismo Folgore is a bit of a curiosity, just sliding into production before Maserati brought down the guillotine on the MC20 Folgore through lack of demand, but could it be one of the most underrated and underappreciated cars on sale?

Fair to say it hasn’t been wildly popular. Maserati sold just 372 cars in the UK in 2025 (a 21 per cent drop on 2024), the bulk of which were Grecale SUVs, along with a handful of MC20s and GranTurismos… of which a pinchful were GranTurismo Folgores, which let’s face it doesn’t come as a huge surprise in the face of EV-scepticism at the ‘enthusiast’ end of the market. And at the best part of £200k including options, this is a car that exists very much in the ‘want’ not ‘need’ area.

However, I’m here to tell you whether it’s a good car or not, not for GCSE business analysis, which is where things start to look up. When we first drove one three years ago, Ollie Marriage was massively impressed by its handling balance and shocking pace. So much so it won ‘Best Electric GT’ in the 2023 TopGear.com EV Awards. Pedigree.

Is it simply misunderstood? Does it deserve to be more popular than it is? Well we’ve got three months to get to the bottom of all that and answer many burning questions, such as: do my kids fit in the back? Can it handle everything from daily duties to longer drives? Are the running costs drastically reduced next to the petrol version? Can it handle a track day? And does the Maserati badge still have the ability to make people swoon wherever it goes?

First things first, it’s gorgeous. It does that uniquely Maserati thing of melding classic GT proportions – mile-long bonnet, muscly rear haunches – with the flow of the designer’s pen, all bulges and sculpture, not sharp edges and harsh cut-offs. Truth be told, it’s quite hard to tell it apart from the old 2007-2019 car, but is that a bad thing? Maseratis are supposed to be elegant, restrained and sophisticated – if peacocking’s your thing, see the Ferrari dealer down the road.

To our spec then, which is pretty much perfection. The Blu Modena paint (a £3,720 extra) does a good job of keeping you under the radar and works well with the copper badging and brake calipers, while the 20in and 21in Aura Design wheels are highly kerbable and incredibly beautiful – a dangerous combination. The interior is immaculately dressed in a mix of ivory leather and denim-coloured Econyl (made from recycled fishing nets) – that’s £2,700 extra for the seats – and gets the full driver assistance pack (£5,160) including adaptive cruise control and active lane keep. We’re also treated to the premium 19-speaker Sonus sound system (£3,360), with its cheese-grater speaker covers.

And just in case you haven’t been studying our 2023 first drive religiously, a stats recap. Three electric motors - two at the rear, one at the front - for a total of 750bhp, 996lb ft of torque, 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds (vs 3.6 for the 550bhp twin-turbo V6-powered Trofeo model) and a top speed of 202mph. And all despite a kerbweight of 2,260kg. There’s a 92.5kWh battery, an 800V architecture for a max charging speed of 270kW (meaning you can theoretically add 62-miles of range in five mins) and a claimed total WLTP range of 280-miles.

On paper the numbers are impressive for a three-year-old car… but will reality match Maserati’s claims? It’s going to be a lot of fun finding out.