The V8 isn't dead at Maserati — just shelved, with one stubborn obstacle in the way

© A. Krivonosov

Maserati has cautiously left the door open for a V8 return. After several years of electrification and the move to the V6 Nettuno, the company no longer claims the big eight-cylinder is gone for good.

The catalyst was a comment from Maserati’s chief operating officer, Santo Ficili. Asked about future powertrains, he reached for a punchy phrase: “Sky is the limit.” He stopped short of a direct “yes” on a V8, but added that the brand is weighing all options for its future engines and ruling nothing out in advance.

For Maserati, the V8 is a particularly sore subject. Through the 2000s and 2010s, the Quattroporte and GranTurismo with their Ferrari-supplied engines became central to the brand’s revival: expensive, emotional, anything but the clinical German rivals. The V8 soundtrack was almost as much of a selling point as the design and the Trident badge. The switch to the V6 made the cars more technologically advanced, but some of that old magic faded.

That said, Maserati isn’t about to write off the Nettuno. Ficili made clear the company is proud of its in-house twin-turbo V6 and wants to squeeze every drop out of it. The engine already covers a remarkable spread: from the Grecale to the track-only MCXtrema. In its calmest production tune it puts out around 390 hp, in the updated GranTurismo and GranCabrio Trofeo it has just been pushed to 590 hp, and in its most extreme form it gets close to 730 hp. With a specific output of 177 hp per litre, the Nettuno tops its category, and there is real headroom left in the unit, especially once hybrid layers come into play.

The V8 problem isn’t one of desire — it’s one of supply. Inside Stellantis, the available eight-cylinder engines are tied largely to the HEMI family, and that’s a very different character: blunt American muscle rather than expensive Italian menace. Developing a bespoke V8 is possible, but for a niche brand that means huge investment, certification headaches, emissions hurdles and a real risk of never recouping the spend.

In the market, an engine like that wouldn’t be needed for volume but for image. Maserati now competes not just with BMW M, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche, but with its own past. The electric Folgore lineup matters for the future, but a GranTurismo or Quattroporte buyer often wants more than speed — they want the sense of owning something special. A V8 could restore that emotional anchor.

For now, a V8 revival is no promise — just a careful hint. But for a brand that has spent too long balancing between luxury, sport and survival, even a hint like that lands louder than yet another electrification plan.