Maserati Levante vs Tesla Model Y

What's the difference?

Maseratis are built for a fairly specific niche buyer; someone with a lot of money, someone slightly older and certainly someone who likes the finer things in life and appreciates Italian style, quality and heritage.

They are not, typically, the kind of buyers who want to tear around race tracks like fiends in big, shouty SUVs. But apparently there is a niche within the niche of Maserati fans who do, and they are willing to invest big dollars in vehicles wearing the Trofeo badge, like this Levante.

It might seem a slightly strange creation, a track-mad SUV with a screaming Ferrari engine, but surprisingly, it really does work.

If you like the five-seat Model Y, then you'll like the six-seat L version even more. I think this the best example of Tesla's electric SUV to date, and the cabin layout just makes a lot of sense, and would suit plenty of families who don't need to squeeze someone into a compromised middle seat.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

While the other two Maseratis to get the Trofeo treatment - the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans - are undeniably lovely, the Levante is not quite as pretty.

Admittedly, for an SUV, it looks very good, and the Trofeo touches - that big, nostrilled bonnet, the red gills on the sides, the carbon, the badges - really do lift its game to another level.

Overall, though, the Levante has just never felt beautiful enough to me to be a Maserati. These guys really do style well, as you'd expect from a premium Italian brand, but making an SUV sexy is beyond even them.

I'll grant you, it does look good from front on, but at the rear they just seem to have run out of ideas.

Credit is due for feeling properly special inside, however.

Spoiler alert - it looks a lot like a five-seat Model Y, doesn’t it, albeit a slightly bigger one. And you’d have to be a bigger Tesla head than me to immediately spot the differences at a glance.

The wheelbase is longer, the rear doors are bigger as are the rear 3/4 panels and the roof line is higher, helping with headroom in the third row.

Still, safe to say if you like the look of the five-seat Model Y, you’ll like this one. And if you hate it, well, good luck.

The alloys are 19-inch and shaded by the aerodynamic caps and there are light bars front and rear which debuted on the updated five-seat Model Y when it arrived mid-last year.

The bigger changes are inside, of course. I promise we’ll get to the second and third rows in the Practicality section, but let’s talk about the look and feel first.

There’s a love/hate relationship with Tesla’s stripped-back aesthetics, and I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I like the airiness of the space in the cabin, and I think it feels nicely put together, and I really dig the contrasting fabric used on the doors and dash which add a little visual interest to the cabin.

But I hate using the central screen to select a gear and I hate not being able to see how fast I’m going without turning my head. A head-up display would work wonders in the Model Y L cabin.

If you've got to move five people in a genuine hurry, the Levante is a pleasant way to go about it.

There's plenty of head and shoulder room, the seats, while firm in the front, are pleasant to the touch and supportive and there's a 580-litre boot with an electric tailgate and split-folding seats.

The boot feels properly spacious, too, with a 12-volt power outlet and four tie-down points. You won't, however, find a spare wheel out there, so serious off-roading is out (although it probably was already if you look at those expensive wheels).

There are huge door pockets with room for bottles and two big cup holders in the front. The centre-console bin looks lovely, it's all carbon fibre, but is quite small.

There are also three USB points, one in the front and two in the rear, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

Captain’s chairs are simply a more luxurious version of second-row seating. With that there is no argument and the heated and cooled chairs that occupy the second row of the Model Y L are pretty good examples of them.

Space, both knee and headroom, is ample, and you can adjust each seat individually if you want to grant a bit more space to any third row occupants. Armrests deploy at the push of a button — as do the two hidden cupholders — and it really is easy to settle in and get comfy.

The third row is a bit more hit and miss. I’m 175cm and found I had enough legroom and headroom, but the big plastic mouldings that emerge from each side of the Model Y (which house a cupholder) are a miss. They end up pushing you into the seat next to you, and I can foresee a lot of arm rubbing with anything like two adults back there.

Also confusing is how to actually get out of it. You can fold the seat in front of you flat, but then you have to climb over it. I found it easier to just walk out between the seats.

There are another two USB-C ports in the rear row and you get air vents but no temperature controls. 

The Model Y L stretches 4969mm in length, 1668mm in height and 2129mm in width, which is roughly 18cm longer and 4.5cm taller than the five-seat model. The extra space doesn’t sound like that much, but start dropping rows and you find a heap of storage space.

Both the second and third row stow electronically from the boot, but with them in place you’ll find 420 litres of storage in the double-layer boot. Drop the third row, and that number grows to 1076 litres. With the third row folded there is a massive 2423 litres of space. The frunk serves up another 116 litres.

There’s also room (and the ISOFIX attachment points) for four child seats.

The Model Y L sits smack bang between the $68,900 Long Range AWD and the $89,400 Performance, setting you back $74,900, before your on-road costs. It’s also the only three-row option in the Tesla family.

Aside from people movers, we’re not swimming with options in the three-row electric space, either. The Kia EV9 will get it done from $97,000, the Hyundai IONIQ 9 starts from around $120K and the Volvo EX90 is more expensive again (from $124,990).

Anyway, in Tesla land, the Model Y L rides on 19-inch alloy wheels, has a glass roof, automatic wipers and Tesla’s smartphone access key, as well as the little credit-card swipe.

Inside, there’s a 16.0-inch central screen that handles everything. And I mean everything. It's your gear selector, your speedometer, and everything else, too. There’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but you can access things like Spotify and podcasts through the in-built apps and the on-board navigation system is a good one, too.

All of that pairs with a 19-speaker sound system, and there are dual wireless charge pads. All three rows of seats are heated, while the first and second row get ventilation, too.

A second 8.0-inch touchscreen in the middle row then handles things like the seat heating or cooling, music and games to amuse the kids. And the Model Y L also debuts V2L, or Vehicle to Load, for Tesla in Australia, using a connector in the external charger.

This will be the last time Maserati gets a proper Ferrari engine like this a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 shouty monster, which is good for 433kW and 730Nm.

The future, as is the case everywhere, is going to be more electric and less noisy. For now, anyone who can should enjoy this V8 masterpiece, which drives all four wheels through Maserati's Q4 on-demand all-wheel drive system via a limited-slip rear differential and uses an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Its claimed 0 to 100km/h time is 3.9 seconds, which puts it in what used to be super-car territory, and is still very quick indeed, while top speed is an unimaginable 304km/h.

The Model Y L gets Tesla’s dual-motor AWD powertrain, with two electric motors producing a total 378kW and 590Nm. That’s enough, Tesla says, to knock off the sprint to 100km/h in five seconds flat.

The official claimed fuel economy for the Maserati Levante Trofeo is 13.5 litres per 100km, but good luck with that. 

A more realistic number would probably sit somewhere above 17 litres per 100km, and we would have easily exceeded 20 litres while driving it like lunatics around a track.

But you just paid $330K for an SUV, what do you care about fuel economy?

Tesla is always a little vague when it comes to the size of its batteries, but reports point to the Model Y L carrying a 84Wh (useable) NMC battery.

Whatever the specifics, the range is strong, with Tesla promising a 681km driving range on the WLTP combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle.

It’s also set up for 250kW DC fast charging, which should see you take on 288km in 15 minutes, according to Tesla.

We got to drive all three Trofeo-fettled Maseratis on track at Sydney Motorsport Park, and before that on the road, where the Levante felt very pleasant, and pleasantly expensive at all times.

As you might expect, a vehicle with 433kW is difficult to fully appreciate on public roads, although there was the occasional and exciting change to give it a quick, loud blat between gears.

It only takes hearing that engine note, and feeling that torque surge, a few times to see why someone might fall in love with this car, or at least this engine.

Out on the track, the rear-driven Ghibli and Quattroporte, which share the Levante's engine, were surely the more fun and frenetic things to drive, but there were those who chose the Levante as their best of the three, even for circuit driving.

There's no doubt that its on-demand all-wheel-drive system, which is biased towards the rear but asks the front wheels for help when required, made it feel the most planted, and the safest, through fast and slow bends.

There's a definite sense that its engine is being asked to work the hardest, though, to push all that bulk through the air (although its brakes never seemed to fade, which is impressive with more than two tonnes of SUV to stop).

While the big, deafening V8 is willing and keen to rev all the way to 7000rpm (where it bangs on the redline waiting for your upshift, if you're driving in manual mode - I do like that), it started to make large sucking sounds towards the top of each gear, as if it was desperately trying to get more oxygen in.

It genuinely sounded different to the other two Trofeo cars, which is odd, but perhaps they just weren't as near their limits. That bulk also slowed it slightly in terms of top speed down the straight, but it still exceeded 220km/h with ease.

What should be said is that I was genuinely shocked at how good the Levante Trofeo was around a track. So much so I asked to have a second go, just to make sure I wasn't going mad.

Sure, it makes no sense to me personally, and I don't know why anyone needs an SUV that's good on a track, but if you do, I can recommend the Levante for sure.

That hugely enjoyable engine is just too much fun, although it's even better in a sedan like the Ghibli...

Honestly, it feels like the Tesla Model Y has grown up. I didn’t love earlier iterations of this car and I found the Performance to be fast but lacking any emotional fizz.

This one, though, feels solid and composed, and the power on tap (of which there is ample) is more about effortless progress than it is attempting to offer sports car excitement.

The steering is now nicely weighted and feels direct enough without being too sharp, and the cabin is well insulated, with often the slightly off-putting sort of rubbing noise the steering wheel makes when you turn it the only intrusive sound.

One drawback is a ride that definitely errs on the side of firm. This Model Y L gets electronic damping designed to iron out some of the more jagged stuff, but it still feels brittle in places, and you can definitely feel some sharpness in the cabin. Now, to be fair, it’s not too firm for me, but it might be for you.

Another is a bizarre turning circle which constantly reminds you you’re driving a big bus, especially when you try to complete a tight three-point turn.

But despite its stretched dimensions, I found the Model Y L easy to drive and park in the city, and once you're up to speed with Tesla's operating system (there's no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto), then the screen is pretty easy to use, too.

The Model Y L gets the same maximum five-star ACNAP safety rating as the rest of the Model Y range, with nine airbags (up from seven in the five-seat model), and things like AEB (Auto Emergency Braking), lane-keeping assist, 'Forward Collision Warning' and blind-spot monitoring all along for the ride.

Interestingly, the curtain airbags from the five-seat version haven't been replaced, with coverage still only extending to the second row. New airbags have instead been added for third-row occupants.

One more analogue quirk of the Tesla Model Y L is the thick B-pillar, which does a good job of almost completely obscuring driver-side blind-spot checks (for those of us who still like to do those manually).

Maserati offers a three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, but you can choose to buy 12-month or two-year warranty extensions, and even a sixth or seventh-year drive-train warranty extension.

When much, much cheaper Japanese and Korean cars are offering seven and even 10-year warranties, this is so far off the pace that such a fast vehicle should be embarrassed. And if you're buying something Italian, a better, longer warranty would seem like a must. I'd be negotiating at sale for them to throw the longer warranty offer in.

Maserati says servicing for the Ghibli has a "ball park costing of $2700.00 for the first three years of ownership" with a service schedule of every 20,000km or 12 months (whichever occurs first)

Also, "please note that the above is indicative only of the manufacturers basic routine service maintenance schedule and does not include any consumable items such as tyres, brakes etc or additional dealership charges such as environmental levies etc."

Tesla warranty is a these-days-underwhelming five years and unlimited kilometres, while the high-voltage battery is covered for eight years or (a wildly specific) 192,000km.

There’s also five years' of roadside assistance, including puncture repair (a good thing, given the lack of a spare wheel). I also couldn’t find a puncture repair kit and later research suggests Tesla sells them, rather than provides them as standard.

Tesla servicing is condition-based, so there’s no fixed schedule, with a summary on the car’s touchscreen providing a record of when vehicle maintenance was last carried out and prompts for when they should be performed next.

In the absence of a combustion powertrain the emphasis is on things like wheel rotation, balancing and alignment, brake fluid testing, air-con servicing, camera precision, radiator cleaning and high-voltage battery maintenance.

Expecty a ‘Vehicle Health Check’ to come in under $300 with ‘General Diagnosis’ at around $270 per hour.