It's no secret that 2024 was a rough year for Stellantis. It was so rough that Carlos Tavares ultimately resigned his CEO position amid all kinds of alleged finger-pointing between him and the entire Stellantis board. In the US, much has been said about sales declines at Jeep, Ram, and Dodge, not to mention strained relationships with dealers. But things are especially bad at Maserati.
We're still waiting for full 2024 sales stats, but Autocar reports Maserati is down over 50 percent. Revenue is also down by the same amount, and production on Maserati's EVs is still shut down. CEO Santo Ficili—who was hired in October 2024 after Tavares fired ex-boss Davide Grasso—has the seemingly monumental task of turning things around. Speaking to Autocar, he outlined a broad plan to bring the luxury marque back to profitability. But it won't be easy, and it won't happen soon.
Everything starts with building a strong team to look at making Maserati more competitive. Price cuts aren't out of the question, and cost-cutting within the company is on the table. He acknowledged that marketing efforts were not effective, going so far as to plan a relaunch of the GranCabrio which debuted in February 2024. And apparently, Maserati dealers are also largely unhappy with how the previous leadership handled business. This certainly seems to be a trend with brands under the Stellantis umbrella. Rebuilding those relationships is a priority for Ficili.
If all goes according to plan, 2025 will still be a down year. Ficili doesn't expect the company to see profitability until 2026 at the earliest, but he's cautiously optimistic.
"I’m super positive because of the legacy of the brand, and if you have a little fire with a brand like this, you can then have a very different kind of fire," he said.
Source: Autocar
