The Maserati Grecale is expected to be revealed later this year. Ahead of that debut, the company has taken a unique approach to showing off the camoflauge-wrapped SUV – they released photos to company employees with instruction to distribute them on social networks rather than sending them to the press.

The employees obliged. One of the first to do so was Bernard Loire, Chief Commercial Officer at Maserati.

Emotions are running high as we got our exclusive preview of the new Grecale prototype. The new era is firmly shape with this new Maserati SUV soon to join our collection. #MaseratiGrecale #WeAreMaserati #Maserati pic.twitter.com/KTFimM23oi
— Bernard Loire (@BernardLoire) February 18, 2021

Each of the three photos distributed shows the Grecale outside the historic Maserati plant on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena, Italy. The prototype cars are currently undergoing a period of intensive road, circuit and off-road tests, in various conditions of use, to acquire vital data for the preparation of the new SUV’s final setup.

The Maserati plant is the same place where the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is built, in Cassino, Italy. Maserati will invest 800 million Euros to get the plant ready for production.

The 2022 Maserati Grecale will be the little sister of the Maserati Levante. It is expected to compete directly with the Porsche Macan in a hot luxury compact SUV market.

Maserati has said that it will offer a hybrid and battery electric (BEV) version of the Grecale, but expect to see the hybrid before the BEV.

The Maserati Grecale was spied testing outside the company’s facility in Italy.Photo courtesy of Maserati

The automaker is also expected to create a high-performance variant of the SUV, giving it the Trofeo name. Maserati currently sells the Levante in Levante, Levante S, Levante GTS, and Levante Trofeo grades. The Grecale could follow suit.

The larger Levante starts at $77,890 and tops out over $152,000. It’s likely that the Grecale will be priced lower, possibly starting around $50,000. A range-topping Trofeo could be priced over $100,000.

Not much else is known about the Grecale at this point. It’s likely that Maserati will continue to tease the model, revealing it little by little until the full cover comes off, if the reveal of the company’s MC20 sportscar is any indication.