Lightning Strikes the Water: Meet the Maserati Tridente
In 2022, Maserati CEO Davide Grasso made a bold announcement. He promised, during a year in which his fellow Italian carmakers were rolling out such fire-breathing, gas-glugging machines as Lamborghini’s Aventador Ultimae and Ferrari’s SP48 Unica, that Maserati would offer electric versions of each of its existing models by 2025. Less than a year away from that deadline, Grasso has done one better — and begun to electrify outside of Maserati’s road-going garage.
Introducing the Tridente, a luxurious all-electric powerboat with a nautical-nodding name and a debt of collaboration to leading marine technology brand Vita Power. With its carbon-fibre construction and slick design by Maine-based boatbuilder Hodgdon Yachts, the 10.5-metre boat is Maserati’s bid to extend its ambitious, industry-leading electrification strategy onto the water. And this fierce “Folgore” spirit (a word that translates from Italian to “lightning,” and badges each of the brand’s land-bound electrically powered efforts) pulses through every deck slat and upholstery stitch of the new vessel.
The expert eye of Hodgdon Yachts, a firm that specializes in superyacht tender design, is evident across every inch of the Tridente, with the well-proportioned boat easily capable of accommodating 10 passengers in a cockpit that can be configured for either dining or driving. You’ll find a berth below, complete with fully equipped washroom, a bed on the sundeck, and a swim platform — with shower and step ladder — at the boat’s stern.
As far as specs are concerned, Vita Power has blessed the Tridente with a peak output of 600 horsepower, a battery capacity of 252 kWh, and a top speed of 40 knots. What’s more, the boat recharges in under one hour — a tanking-up time most EV motorists could only dream of.
Which brings us to Maserati’s final flourish: an accompanying car. For, as the Tridente slips into the water, so too does a new car roll onto the road, and the vehicle to complement this vessel is, naturally, also electrically powered. The GranCabrio Folgore is a tri-motor triumph from Maserati, featuring as it does three radial-flux, permanent-magnet motors that ensure the grand tourer, like the day cruiser, produces zero emissions. The science, though sustainable, is a little knotty, but know that it’s exceptionally engineered, and that this trio of motors mesh together to make the car’s powertrain a truly three-pronged proposition — much, coincidentally, like a “tridente” itself.