Maserati’s transformation into a fully electric brand by 2030 is being accompanied by a more efficient and disciplined retail strategy.
In 2021, the Italian luxury brand had to overhaul a distribution model that was leading to cars sitting at U.S. ports that weren’t assigned to dealerships yet.
Under the old method, Maserati would order vehicles and stock them at ports, and dealers would select from those models. The problem was that dealerships might not want those particular vehicles.
This approach is now a thing of the past, with the company shifting its focus to fulfilling dealer orders.
“We said no more cars that we build for the port because we were having trouble getting the right car to the dealership that the customer wanted at the right time,” Bill Peffer, CEO of Maserati Americas, told Automotive News. “Cars were on our books; the dealers didn’t necessarily want them. We weren’t ordering correctly, and the customer didn’t really want them.”
Peffer said Maserati was paying “for the dealership to take these cars out of port, and then we’re paying a second time” by putting big discounts on the vehicles to sell them.
This is just one of the ways Maserati has recalibrated as it embarks on an electrification journey that will see the brand introduce battery-electric versions of its entire lineup in the next three years.
U.S. sales have trended downward in recent years, but the brand saw a 32 percent bounce in 2021 after adjusting its tactics.
It did this while selling two fewer models. GranTurismo and GranCabrio convertible production temporarily ended after 2019, and their former plant in Modena, Italy, was upgraded to accommodate building the MC20 supercar. The next GranTurismo and GranCabrio will be made at the Mirafiori production hub in Turin and will return in 2023 as Maserati’s first electric vehicles. They also will have conventional gasoline versions.
Maserati wants to rein in incentives going forward and appeal to those buying on emotion, not price. The brand’s forward push will be product-led, Peffer said, not sales-centered.
The brand is simplifying its lineup as well by going to a three-trim strategy. Its product mix will better align with demand when the new Grecale crossover reaches U.S. dealerships this year.
The Grecale, which will get an electric variant in 2023, arrives at a time when Peffer said more luxury consumers are mirroring the mass market and turning to utility vehicles.
“One of the things we had been struggling with is we’re not on the consideration list for SUV intenders,” said Peffer, who joined Maserati last year. “We’re confident that a two-SUV lineup similar to one of our primary competitors will help legitimize us further as a performance luxury SUV brand.”
The lineup still will have plenty of speedsters that sit closer to the road. Electric versions of the MC20 supercar, Quattroporte sport sedan and Levante crossover will go on sale by 2025.
Maserati’s upcoming EVs, which will bear the Folgore name, are part of the Stellantis Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan unveiled this month.
“With all these electrified new products, full-electric, Maserati will set performance innovation benchmarks in every market, in every segment that we’re going to be competing,” CEO Davide Grasso said at a media event last week.
At the dealership level, Maserati wants to introduce a new retail experience built around a free-flowing store layout that feels inclusive.
A consumer would sit at a central table where they could have a coffee or configure a vehicle, said Bernard Loire, Maserati’s chief commercial officer. The brand said it wants to create a memorable experience when consumers take deliveries, including giving them the option to be filmed.
Randy Dye, the Stellantis National Dealer Council chairman, said he’s confident in Stellantis’ ability to make the transition to EVs. But he wonders if the infrastructure needed to support EVs will be developed enough to achieve the targets that brands such as Maserati are setting. He’d like to see gasoline-powered vehicles and EVs coexist to give consumers options.
“I happen to believe that we can do both,” Dye said. “That we can have a significant number of offerings in BEVs, and we can still have internal-combustion engines.
“Ultimately, the real question … is what’s the consumer going to want?” Dye asked. “I think we’ve got to know the answer to that question before I can say is it a good idea for anybody to be 100 percent electric by any date.”
Dye, a Maserati dealer in Florida for nearly 10 years, praised the move away from shipping cars that dealerships didn’t order. He said his confidence in the brand has never been higher.
“You don’t have the pressure of prebuilt cars sitting around and somebody’s trying to get you to take those,” Dye said. “We order our own inventory. We prefer to order our own inventory. In theory, we prefer to order our inventory because that’s what the customer wants.”