Maserati sedan spied near Modena

Maserati has confirmed its upcoming sedan will be called the Ghibli, and a heavily covered four-door model has been captured near Modena, Italy.

Is this the purported E-segment sedan that could spell sales volume and an extension of the Maserati brand? We hear the prototype appeared to be smaller than the Quattroporte and with a different interior. The carmaker did not have any immediate comment.

Maserati is known to be developing a sedan to compete against the BMW 5-series, Mercedes-Benz E-class and Audi 6. It will be built at a former Bertone factory in Modena that is being converted for Ghibli production at a cost of about $650 million. The Alfa Romeo 4C will also be assembled at that site.

A rear view of the covered prototype, believed to be a future Maserati sedan, is shown.

The Ghibli was used on Maserati V8 sports cars in the 1960s and 1970s and then resurrected in the 1990s for a V6 coupe.

Meanwhile, Maserati also confirmed a new name for its SUV, the Levante. The production model, reportedly set to debut in January at the Detroit auto show, follows the Kubang concept.

The Levante will launch in 2014. It's named after a street in Bologna, where the Maserati brothers first planned for their car company in 1914. The SUV is timed to launch as part of the brand's centennial.

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Maserati has used the Ghibli name before, including on the 1969 spyder.

By Greg Migliore