TURIN – Stellantis’ struggling luxury brand, Maserati, has the right technologies and products to meet its sales and profit targets, but still has significant work to do on marketing, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said.
Maserati’s global sales fell more than 50 percent to 6,500 vehicles from January to June from 15,300 in the same period last year, Stellantis said.
The brand had an adjusted operating loss of €82 million ($90 million), compared with a profit of $133 million in 2023. That translates to a negative 13 percent adjusted operating margin, compared with a positive 9.2 percent margin in 2023.
“What I see right now is that we have the cost structure that should allow us to ensure the sustainability of Maserati, but I don’t think that we have done enough to position the brand as a pure luxury brand,” Tavares told reporters after inaugurating a global hub for the group’s commercial vehicle division, Pro One, in Turin in September.
Despite improvements in quality and offering a range of powertrains, including full-electric Folgore models, Maserati is not reaching enough potential buyers with the right message, he said.
“We need to work on the purchase funnel, on the lead generation and, if we generate more leads, then sales will follow,” Tavares said.
Maserati in January named Giovanni Perosino as chief marketing officer. He had worked at Volkswagen Group, Audi and Lamborghini, as well as at ITA Airways.
‘Disappointing’ first half
Maserati is the only brand for which Stellantis reports individual figures, and they were disappointing during the first half.
“The first half has been disappointing” Stellantis CFO Natalie Knight said on a call with journalists July 25, which she said was largely tied to Maserati discontinuing a number of models. At the end of last year Maserati ceased production of the Ghibli midsize sedan and Quattroporte large sedan, and at the end of March it stopped the Levante large crossover.
Tavares confirmed that Maserati will continue building its current range, which consists of the Grecale midsize crossover, its only volume model, as well as two niche products, the GranTurismo coupe and GranCabrio convertible, plus the carbon-fiber MC20 low-volume supercar, which has coupe and roadster variants.
The Grecale is Maserati’s bestseller in Europe, although sales dropped by 42 percent to 2,360 vehicles from January to July, according to figures from Dataforce.
Given that the Grecale makes up three-quarters of Maserati’s sales in Europe, its performance dragged down the brand’s total by 41 percent to 3,187 vehicles through July from 5,381 in the same period last year.
In the U.S., Maserati sales fell 21 percent to 770 vehicles in the third quarter, but for the first nine months sales deliveries rose 6.3 percent to 4,870, according to Automotive News Data & Research Center estimates.
Profitability under threat
Maserati’s sales were stable at about 26,000 vehicles in 2023 and 2022, but profitability has been threatened since the second half of last year, when its margin was $22 million, or 1.9 percent.
Maserati appears to be adjusting production to its lower sales and is not planning any volume increase until new products are expected starting in 2027, according to figures from the FIM-CISL union and supplier sources.
Maserati built 7,572 vehicles in the first nine months, a decline of 74 percent on the same period the year before, FIM-CISL figures show. That implies a total production this year of less than 10,000 cars, given that third-quarter output was just 1,428 vehicles.
According to planning documents Stellantis gave to suppliers and seen by Automotive News Europe, Maserati plans to build about 26,000 cars in 2025 and more than 17,000 in 2026.
The 2025 figure is aligned to what Maserati’s production was in 2023 — 27,166 vehicles, according to FIM-CISL — but it would vastly outpace expected production and sales this year based on nine-month figures.
The Folgore full-electric variant of the MC20 is due next year, but it will likely have limited impact on volume.
In late January, Maserati announced that a full-electric successor to the Levante large crossover would be unveiled in 2027, two years later than first planned, and the next-generation Quattroporte large sedan, also an EV, will arrive in 2028, three years after its first due date.
According to people familiar with the matter, Maserati is considering launching the Levante successor after the large sedan, extending the delay on its original plan to over four years.
Uncertain future
After Maserati reported sharply lower sales figures and significant losses in the first half, CFO Knight said July 25 that there could be “some point in the future” when the group looks at “what’s the best home” for the brand.
Also July 25, Tavares signaled in a call with journalists that unprofitable brands might not be given unlimited time to find their footing. Stellantis’ overall financial returns were down sharply in the first half as the group struggled with high inventories, especially in North America.
“If they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down,” Tavares said in answer to a question about whether the group, with 15 brands, had too many mouths to feed. “That’s very simple, because we are talking about a very difficult transition period (where) we cannot afford to have brands that do not make money.”
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