The group Stellarwith its 14 brands, went in less than a year from being the industry’s leading student to being in a position at least as critical as that of the Volkswagen Group. Immersed in a covert restructuring, in which the suppliers bear the brunt, with a mass strike and a paralyzed factory in Italy, Stellantis does not rule out selling brands if necessary.
In this context, rumors of a possible sale of Maserati to Chinese manufacturer Chery. The same one that took over the Nissan factory in Barcelona and that in a few months was going to produce on site to end up delaying car production for a year.
Italy would have given approval for the sale of Maserati
Virtually all brands in the Stellantis group are on a downward slope. The most severe case, without a doubt, is that of Maserati. The brand has struggled to recover since the beginning of 2024, but its sales are not living up to the agreed investment.
Maserati sold around 26,600 cars in 2023, it was not exactly its worst year, although far from its record of 51,500 units sold in 2017. On the other hand, 2024 has been extremely tough. Sales dropped to just 6,500 units in the first half of this yearwhich means a 50% drop compared to the 15,300 units sold in the same period of the previous year.
In addition, it recorded adjusted operating losses of 82 million euros. This is bad for any brand and means you are far behind your competitors. A clear sign of the difficulties Maserati faced was its striking absence at Stellantis Investor Day 2024. It was the only brand that was not represented.
His absence sparked rumors that Stellantis was going to kill off Maserati. Carlos Tavares, CEO of the group, then assured that Maserati’s future was assured. However, since then, the rumors have not ceased that, as stated Natalie Knight, financial director of Stellantis, “the future is linked to how to maintain the highest value (…) There could come a time when we ask ourselves what is the “better home for Maserati.” The future would be assured, but far from Stellantis.
The latest rumors that point to a future away from Stellantis come to us from Chinese social networks, as shared Inside China Auto. One post reported an alleged update to a rumor that has been floating around for some time. In it it is stated that the Italian government would have approved the sale of Maserati to Chery Auto.
Breaking news
Potentially massive news if true, but this account states that Chery is in the final stages of acquiring Maserati from Stellantis.
Stellantis has been rumoured to be looking at offloading some brands and this could be the first domino. pic.twitter.com/ltPJ0LsKpA
— Inside China Auto (@InsideChinaAuto) October 17, 2024
The hope is that Chery Auto could come to the rescue by purchasing the Italian luxury carmaker, and ideally, revitalizing it for the future. Cherywhich took over the old Nissan factory in Barcelona that will be shut down for at least a year, is currently the China’s fifth largest automakerwith 1,881,316 vehicles manufactured in 2023. If that wasn’t impressive enough, that figure is almost double what the brand sold in 2021. Chery’s growth has been meteoric.
In April, there were reports of a meeting between Chery CEO Yin Tongyue and Adolfo Urso, the Minister of Economic Development of the Italian government. At the time, talks were said to concern the sale of the former Maserati plant in Grugliasco (a former Pininfarina factory), which Chery could use to produce a range of electric, hybrid and petrol vehicles.
To top it off, DigiTimes Asia published an article stating that Chery might be willing to buy Maserati to make a gap in the prestige market. A few days later, an official statement from Chery only added fuel to the fire.
In a statement to the press, the Chinese manufacturer stated that there was “no relevant information” to share on the matter. They could have simply issued a simple denial and thus put an end to the story. Instead, the ambiguous response suggests that the possibility of a takeover is very real. Or that something was lost in translation.
In any case, what is clear is that with 6,500 cars sold in the middle of the year, with the Grecale SUV that should have made the largest volume, Maserati accounts are in red.
The Grecale is manufactured at the Alfa Romeo factory in Cassino. This has a capacity of about 300,000 cars per year, but production in the first quarter amounted to 8,540 units (including the Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio in addition to the Grecale), which represents a negative drop of -40.7% compared to to 2023. Such a negative quarterly figure has never been reached in the history of the Cassino plant.
Maserati is being a financial pit for Stellantis and the group’s most prestigious brand. And prestige is what Chinese brands lack, especially Chery, which arrived in Europe with two brands, Omoda and Jaecoo.
However, in Italy, selling a prestigious brand to a foreign brand has always been a delicate matter. For example, Fiat kept Alfa Romeo in 1986 to prevent Ford from buying it. Thus, there is also talk that Stellantis could remove Maserati from the group and sell it back to Ferrari. After all, the best years of the brand, both in terms of product and sales, were when it was under the Ferrari protection.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
