The successor to the Maserati Quattroporte has been spied testing on an icetrack in Sweden.

Despite the camouflage, the photos suggest the next generation of Maserati’s luxury sports four-door will be more evolution than revolution, but with a hint of a shooting brake-style rear end, in line with the 2013 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG Shooting Brake and Citroen DS9 concept.

The Quattroporte replacement is expected to be lighter than the existing model and carry over the 4.7-litre V8 powerplant from the Quattroporte Sport GT S, no-doubt with some tweaks to the current 323kW/490Nm output. Our spy photographer tells us an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox is likely while a four-wheel drive system could also be available as an option.

The new Maserati four-door (whether it keeps the Quattroporte name or adopts a new moniker is still unconfirmed) will be unveiled at an international motor show in the second half of this year, potentially at Paris in October.