It’s the car changed everything for Maserati: the MC20 supercar, which debuted in 2020 and went on sale the following year.

Now, Maserati is following it up with the MC20 Cielo spyder, a car that promises to be the most expensive vehicle made by Maserati, or Stellantis, its corporate parent.

The MC20 Cielo is scheduled to go on sale in the first quarter of 2023 in Europe, followed by a U.S. launch in the second quarter. In Germany, Europe’s biggest market, it is expected to cost €260,000, or $277,300. U.S. pricing should be announced closer to its on-sale date.

The car’s name has meaning. MC stands Maserati Corse, or racing; 20 refers to 2020, the year the vehicle debuted and Cielo means sky. It’s the second new Maserati unveiled this year, as the brand’s product cadence picks up.

The same, yet different

The biggest change for the Cielo is that it’s a droptop supercar, one that competes with the Ferrari 296 GTS and Lamborghini Huracan roadsters.

The MC20 Cielo’s retractable glass roof opens or closes in 12 seconds, and uses electrochromic glass that can be switched from clear to opaque through the use of Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal technology. All three MC20 configurations — coupe, spyder and a future electric Fogore model — use the same the carbon fiber chassis, with the Cielo weighing 143 pounds more than the coupe.

Like its coupe sibling, the MC20 Cielo is powered by a Maserati-designed “Nettuno” twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 that generates 621 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque. It is paired with an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. This results in a 0-60 mph time of about 3 seconds, and a top speed of more than 199 mph, fractionally slower than the coupe.

Using a V-6 allowed engineers to place the engine down low. This freed stylists to create its undulating, sleek shape. 

The MC20 comes with equipped with a number of driver-assistance safety systems, such as parking sensors, rear-view camera and blind spot monitoring. The new spyder will offer optional autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign information and a new 360-degree camera.

Maserati has sold about 1,000 MC20s since production started in December 2021; 700 have been delivered according to Automotive News. The MC20’s 2022 production is already sold out. 

A changing strategy

Maserati is undergoing a brand turnaround with the arrival of William Peffer Jr. as Maserati Americas’ chief executive officer. After years of pushing aging products and volume driven by low-cost leases, dealers order their cars rather than have the factory force them onto dealer lots and clear them out with incentives.

The company also refocused on its SUV strategy, spotlighting the Levante and the recently introduced Grecale compact luxury SUV.  It’s part of a regular product cadence planned for the next four years.

Maserati isn’t choosing to match larger German automakers in every segment. They are being more selective, and keeping production to a minimum while raising prices in an effort to reaffirm the brand’s luxury mystique.

“We will never proliferate into as many segments as some of our primary competitors,” Peffer told TheDetroitBureau.com in April. “One of the benefits of Maserati is you don’t see one every street corner.”

But Maserati will fully electrify its line-up by 2025, with new models wearing the name Folgore, the Italian word for Lightning. The first model to arrive will be the GranTurismo Folgore, a two-door, four-seater sports car with “way over 1200+” horsepower. 

Maserati is shoring up its brand in other ways. The automaker joined other European and Japanese brands in establishing a classic center, Maserati Classiche, in December.

The reorientation is already having a positive effect. Despite the lack of new product — Maserati’s MC20 supercar didn’t reach showrooms until December 2021 — sales rose 24.2% to 7,615 units in the U.S. market in 2021, up from the brand’s pandemic low of 5,766 sales. But that’s still 44.4% lower than the 13,697 units the brand sold in 2017, just after the launch of the Levante SUV in March 2016.

Still, the increased volume led to increased revenue of more than €2 billion, a 47% increase. This led to €103 million profit in 2021, following a €91 million loss the year before. Margins also rose to 5.1 percent.