Maserati is a unique brand which treads a path of its own, but they are too unique that sometimes lead to a backlash. The company’s boss Harald Wester earlier commented that building electric cars is a waste of time.

Talking to the media personnel, Wester said that building an electric vehicle is a nonsense approach because the cost of producing one, powering it using electrical energy resources and disposing it produces more CO2 than a conventional gasoline model. However, on the contrary to the comments made by the company’s boss, Maserati is actually focusing on building hybrid cars and getting them to people by 2020.

Wester made the comment in 2013, but things have changed a lot in the past two years. Electric cars have become more of a necessity than a luxury. Most manufacturers including Chevrolet, Ford, BMW among others have launched hybrids as well as electric models with great mile range. Tesla is no longer the only maker of EVs in the market. They have their luxury models priced much higher, but the company is also working on making a cheaper Model 3 which will be $30,000 or lesser on launch.

With a changing world, Maserati is in a position to accommodate the change. Harald Wester said, “If we have to overcome emission regulation issues, the regulators who do the job should actually tell us the factors that they take into account. If they are transparent, things will be much easier for the manufacturers. Electric cars are not going to curb emission issues forever”.

He may not be entirely wrong, but due to growing oil prices and cars emitting more CO₂ than ever with increasing number of vehicles, electric cars are becoming more common than ever. Maserati will join the bandwagon as they will be launching plug-in hybrid models of the Ghibli, GranCabrio, Gran Turismo and the Quattroporte. The hybrid models will roll out each year until the lineup is complete.

Maserati’s Levante SUV will be the first car to offer a plug-in hybrid model. The company’s boss clarified that they are going to launch electric cars because there is a high demand for them, both from the government and the customers. He added that they aim to create electrified cars in order to meet their requirement but at the same time will be strict when it comes to avoiding compromises in terms of performance.

“If it sacrifices power, we won’t do it”, he said.