Alexandre
Maserati, the brand with the trident, is going through a difficult period. The figures don't lie: 2024 shows a significant drop in salesA shortage of leads and prospects, and a marketing positioning problem despite quality new products.
Carlos Tavares, CEO of StellantisOn the occasion of the inauguration of Pro One's new offices in Mirafiori, Maserati's owner group recently declared: "We have the right cars and the right technologies, whether internal combustion or 100 % electric, but our sales are falling. The problem is marketing. We lack prospects and leads. We need to reach the right customers and get the right message across."
Worrying figures for Maserati in 2024
Maserati sales trends in the first five months of 2024 only accentuates this concern. According to our figures, results in key markets (top 10 countries) are down sharply.
These results show a decline in sales of between 20 % and 50 %, depending on the country. Should this trend continue, Maserati could end the year with an overall drop of more than 20 % compared with 2023. While the United States remains the number 1 market, it has declined significantly over the past 10 years.
The current situation: a marketing failure?
Tavares pointed to a marketing failure. According to him, Maserati is well armed in terms of products. "The brand offers a range of luxury sports cars like the GranTurismo, available in combustion and 100 % electric versions. The production lines at Mirafiori are working well, as are the activities linked to the circular economy and the production of gearboxes for hybrid units".
However, the first-half 2024 financial results were alarming. With sales of €631 million, compared with €1.31 billion in 2023, and profits down from €121 million to just €20 million, Maserati in deficit (-82 million euros) 349 million in exceptional expenses. Profit margin plunged from 9.2 % to just 1.9 %.
What does the future hold for Maserati?
The challenge is immense for Maserati. Lack of clear marketing positioning weighs heavily on its performance. The Stellantis restructuring plan, including thehe sale of plants and redundanciesillustrates the seriousness of the situation.
A spin-off or a Ferrari takeover was discussed in the media, and then denied by the Stellantis Group. Maserati needs to turn things around to avoid sinking any further. The market is waiting for a strategic repositioning to rekindle the flame.
The Group Stellantis sticks to its 100 % electric strategy, while brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini, which are posting record figures year after year, including in Europe, are deploying a strategy with PHEV models. Models such as the Maserati MC20 GT2 Stradale will remain in the niche.
In our opinion, Maserati's lack of prospects and leads can be explained quite simply by a lack of investment in new PHEV powertrains (e.g. on the Nettuno V6 or the L6 GME) and by a overly pretentious pricing. Here are a few examples. At the entry-level of the range, an electric Porsche Macan (800V architecture) starts at €90,000, compared with €125,000 for a Maserati Grecale Folgore (400V architecture). At the other end of the range, a Lamborghini Huracan STO was launched at €300,000, while the Maserati GT2 Stradale is priced at around €385,000... enough to scare off the few prospective customers.
Remaining in the 100 % electric range, Maserati's future will be to compete with brands like Lotus (Geely) or Jaguar (Tata)... while Aston Martin, McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborghini will continue to offer a thermal range wherever possible. Read more: why the electric 100 % is a risky bet for Maserati.
Above all, it lacks a range built on continuity! Ferrari had done a remarkable job of restoring the reputation of this brand, which should have stayed in its fold! Monumental waste!
As Alfa Romeo was also concerned by this stupid turn on the 100% hairdryer!
"Leads", "prospects", Tavares blames "marketing positioning"...
A lot of "learned" words to drown the fish and avoid talking about the real problem we ALL know about: price positioning.
Since Tavares took over, prices have soared and sales have fallen even further. It makes you wonder, quite legitimately, whether Tavares doesn't want to sink the non-PSA brands, especially the Italian ones, so much so that every one of his decisions points in that direction. But feel free to believe a shameless liar.
Stellantis' number 1 problem, as the UAW union in the United States put it, is Carlos Tavares: he wants to sell at ever higher prices while investing ever less.
He's an arrogant incompetent. He was never even able to launch DS, which 10 years after its official launch as a brand is the laughing stock of the upmarket. How could he handle brands like Alfa Romeo and Maserati? With the DS9, he's wallowed in the long and the short of it, and this is the man who could sell Quattroporte models?
But just the fact that he wants to make it a 100% electric brand right now to avoid investing in hybrids is proof of his total non-involvement in this brand, and in the automotive industry in general.
Everyone knows it, but nobody's doing anything about it, because the people upstairs are gorging themselves like pigs. When it all falls apart, they'll go and invest in another company. The brands will be (even more than today) in a pitiful state, the real skills will be gone, the jobs will no longer exist, the residual value will be really "residual", see what's happening with the PureToc vehicles of the Grande Tavares...
Buongiorno.ho avuto 4 maserati quattroporte. Se le vendite sono disastrose e' perché sono brutte. Per i clienti l'importanza e ' vedere una macchina elegante di classe come erano i vecchi modelli.tutto qui. Elettrica ibrida gas petrolio. Tutto questo non ha importante.spiegatelo a TAVARES
ENRICO PETRETTI
Carlos Tavares' technical incompetence is showing again. He's much more concerned with his personal finances than with automotive technology. It's pitiful for the future of the European car industry.
Unlike many of his counterparts, Tavares is a true Car Guy / Petrol Head, a trained engineer who can't be talked down to, and a gentlemen driver to boot. One thing is certain: for him, marketing (and all the expenses that go with it) and distribution networks are a necessary evil, hence his penchant for investing in R&D engineers!
Have Tavares and his brilliant teams run Rolex Zenith Jaeger lecoultre Hublot Audemars and piguet OMEGA Tudor Breitling and put them all on quartz....
After Simca Talbot Matra, (but not yet Citroën.... But it's coming soon and already half done with DS) They're going to kill Alfa Lancia Maserati and even Fiat...
"We're running out of prospects and leads." And in French or Italian, what does that mean?
More than leads and prospects, and beyond the fact that Carlos Tavares doesn't appreciate "marketers", much preferring them to engineers who can't tell him just anything, we need to ask ourselves 2 questions:
- Maserati's product strategy, with vehicles inherited from the last FCA management, at the end of their life cycle, such as the Ghibli, Levante and Quattroporte, and not electrifiable (if we forget the Ghibli Hybrid presented in 2020 and the Levante Hybrid presented in 2021 ... with a 48v starter-alternator!!!), while recent vehicles are launched with internal combustion engines and the 100% electric Folgore.
- price positioning superior or even far superior to German brands, without the reputation for reliability or residual values
There's undoubtedly a marketing problem with the Maserati brand, and the same could be said for Alfa Romeo.
But if Tavares understood anything about luxury and sports brands, that would be a scoop.
Just today, Tavares declared that postponing the switch to an average of 95g of CO2 later than 2025 is out of the question, in opposition to that of the ACEA, which represents car manufacturers. Super, Tavares wants to force the purchase of electric cars, except that customers aren't following suit.
Once again we have proof that Stellantis and Tavares are a disaster for Italian brands.
Like Alfa Romeo, Maserati suffers from a lack of communication and showrooms.
For example, I have a Maserati dealership in Caen, Normandy, which also does Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. When you walk into the dealership, the focus is on Jaguar or Land Rover. When you're interested in Maserati, the salesman directs you to Jaguar, telling you (not directly) that Maserati bof!!!
And leaves you his business card (Jaguar)
Alfa dealership next door, doing Fiat, Alfa, Jeep, Opel.
How do you expect them to sell?
A luxury brand (Maserati) shunned by dealers, and a premium brand (Alfa) mixed with generalist brands.
A joint Maserati, Alfa and why not Lancia showroom wouldn't be bad.
Tavares is a cattle dealer, so how could he possibly understand the qualities and nobility of thoroughbreds like Maserati? From sugar to pigs.
Tavares or no Tavares, the problem goes deeper and goes back long before Stellantis. The gravediggers of Maserati, Lancia and Alfa: the late Sergio Marcchione and his successor Mike Manley.
Their mistakes:
- A product plan with no life-cycle management and cookie-cutter decisions (the 100% elec plan predates Stellantis).
- A flurry of launches between 2013 and 2015 (Quattroporte VI, Ghibli, Levante all versions at the same time) with little distinction between versions, equipped with features not in line with the top-of-the-range positioning (obsolete infotainment system, very limited ADAS, no electric trunk closure on a QP V8, minimal hybrid versions not giving access to tax benefits...), and no facelift or product renewal plan.
- No respect for promises made: presentation with great fanfare of tempting product plans followed by no investment (e.g. the seductive Alfieri coupé which never saw the light of day) and substantial delays between the announced launch date and the market launch of all new products (the QP VI and the Ghibli were finally launched almost simultaneously, creating even more confusion in terms of positioning between each model).
- GT replacement too late: The end-of-life of the previous Gran Turismo/Gran Cabrio was announced and then postponed 3 years in a row.
- Intensive sales push during product launches, creating countless leads and prospects, who once converted into customers received no further attention from the brand. And to go from 6,300 to 51,500 units between 2012 and 2017, we had to conquer new customers! But once they were acquired by the brand, there was great disappointment about the customer experience beyond driving satisfaction (these cars are still exceptional to drive and have become quite reliable under the aegis of Harald Wester).
- The race for volume has led to insane deals with short-term leasers on astronomical numbers of models, which return to dealers' forecourts after 6 to 12 months, heavily impacting the residual value of used vehicles.
- Not enough investment in the customer experience, also discouraged by the depreciation of their car after 3 or 4 years when it comes time to renew, and who therefore turn away from Maserati. The need for leads is obvious, but the reservoir has already been well tapped...
- Disregard for the distribution network, with the vast majority losing money with the brand.
- Management by terror, with a succession of American CEOs who understand nothing about luxury and know only their domestic market, and a succession of senior managers creating a great deal of instability in the teams.
So we can't put all the blame for the current situation on Stellantis or the arrogant Tavares, even if they haven't found the recipe to turn things around and ensure the timelessness of Maserati, which probably needs passion more than reason to survive.
But on the customer's side, passion is no longer enough to accept premium pricing in the face of more established brands, and for dealers it's not enough to compensate for mediocre or even non-existent profitability.
There's a lot more to be said about this textbook case of mismanagement of a brand as fascinating and mythical as ever, in the hope that its history, which has never been a quiet river, will continue more serenely. So probably outside Stellantis.
Let's keep it simple. Stellantis, aka the "automotive kiss of death", is ruining the brand. Maserati was fine when alongside Ferrari. Now, it is an overpriced brand with poor quality (Stellantis's penchant for using cheap parts... as any Chrysler owner will confirm) and poor marketing. Why does a Ghible share internal parts with a cheap Chrysler product and are the consumers too stupid to notice? What do I care if an suv wins an award for "best rear legroom"? Am I carrying a giraffe? Add to this the idiotic cost for basic parts; brake rotors for $600? Are they unobtanium? Awards should be won for styling, quality, resale value, and other issues. I own a Quattroporte from the Ferrari-derived era (07 ZF) and I really enjoy it but will simply not consider a Ghible due to the servicing issues or a newer Quattroporte. Tavares makes way too much $$$