Ah, Stellantis. You’ve been having a right time of it, haven’t you? You’re a big company in charge of a whole flock of automakers, and just about none of them are doing great right now. Or even good, really. Maserati is one of those brands, and questions continue to swirl—will Stellantis cut it loose?
The latest rumors come to us from Chinese social media, as shared by Inside China Auto. A post reported a supposed update on a rumor that has been floating around for some time. It states that the Italian government has granted approval for the sale of Maserati to Chery Auto.
The hope is that Chery Auto could come to the rescue by purchasing the Italian luxury automaker, and ideally, revitalizing it for the future. Chery is an automaker that doesn’t get a lot of attention in the West. Despite this, it’s quite a large operation. It’s currently the fifth-largest automaker in China, having built 1,881,316 vehicles in 2023. If that weren’t impressive enough, that figure is almost double what the brand sold in 2021. Chery’s growth has been fast to say the least.
????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
A single social media post isn’t a lot to go on. However, these rumors have been brewing for some time. In April, there were reports of a meeting between Chery CEO Yin Tongyue and Adolfo Urso, the Minster for Economic Development in the Italian government. At the time, the talks were said to be regarding the sale of a former Maserati plant in Grugliasco, which Chery would potentially use to produce a range of electric, hybrid, and gas-powered vehicles.
Fast forward to August, and the winds were blowing the other way. As covered by GoAuto, Stellantis made a statement that it had no interest in selling Maserati. It reiterated its “unwavering commitment” to the brand and highlighted numerous new models in the works. At the same time, a post on QQ was telling a very different story, saying that both Chery and Dongfeng Motor were interested in snatching Maserati up.
Just a month later, though, the rumor mill was turning again. DigiTimes Asia ran a piece that Chery could be eager to purchase Maserati as it attempts to gain a foothold in the prestige market. Just days later, an official statement from Chery merely added fuel to the fire. In a statement to the press, the Chinese automaker stated there was “no relevant information” to share regarding the matter. A simple denial might have put the story to bed. Instead, the ambiguous response suggested the possibility of a takeover was very real.
At this stage, nothing is certain. The Autopian has contacted Stellantis and Chery for comment and will update this article accordingly.
Fundamentally, these rumors will go on and on for as long as Stellantis and Maserati continue to struggle. For its part, Maserati sold around 26,600 vehicles last year—not exactly its worst year on record, but a long way below the heady 51,500 units sold in 2017. Meanwhile, 2024 has been harsh in the extreme. Sales were down to just 6,500 units in the first half of this year—over a 50% drop compared to 15,300 units sold in the same period last year.
It’s worth saying out loud: selling Maserati could make a lot of sense for Stellantis. It would provide Stellantis with an injection of cash, and one less beleaguered brand to worry about. Given the brand’s publicly revealed future plans are less than exciting, it’s hard to say Stellantis would be losing a whole lot in the bargain.
In any case, it’s probably an exciting time to be a Stellantis executive, and not in a good way. Maserati could yet come back from the brink, but it’s anyone’s guess how or when that will happen.
Image credits: Maserati, Chery
Interesting. Maserati could use a new lease on life. It’s not like the reliability can get any worse.
So the British colonized and controlled India, and now Tata owns Jaguar and Land Rover. I’m not sure if the Vikings ever made it to China, but they sure would have tried, and now Geely owns Volvo. Marco Polo traveled to China from Italy, and now Chery might own Maserati. I’m wondering what will be next? If the Dutch had a “normal” car company, I would be looking for someone in Indonesia to buy it, maybe someone there could buy DAF? Looking up German colonialism, wouldn’t it be great if someone in Rwanda bought VW?
So I guess Vinfast is going to buy Citroen or Peugeot? That’ll be interesting.
It’s honestly pretty odd this isn’t about Ferrari. I figured they’d want to keep them together.
Oh well. It’ll probably be for the best for Chery to buy the brand. Not like it’ll be deemed less reliable. It’s not we’re talking about Yugo or something.
Ferrari is not owned by Stellantis, it was spun off into its own years ago.
Would be an interesting situation in the US where many Maserati stores are dualed up with Alfa Romeo and/or Fiat. Most dealers with these brands are struggling as is, and a split like this would likely lead to one or both OEMs demanding a facility separation. Given the low franchise value I expect most would plan to give back one or the other.
I actually wonder if it would. Chery would want an existing dealer network, Stellantis just needs some cash so they would probably be fine if it meant the deal went through. Annoying for the dealers to have two systems to deal with though.
Chery could license the Stellantis dealer stuff so dealers don’t have to do anything differently on their end.
New model: Chery TC by Maserati. With portholes!
Just let them die. What is the point of keeping these storied Italian brands around if they’re just going to end up a hodgepodge collection of Chinese platforms and parts?
I’m guessing strategic acquisition (see Lotus/Volvo/etc). They’re getting the R&D and tooling plus more entry into the Italian market. Market exposure baby!
Yeah from a business perspective. But from an enthusiast perspective it’s hard to watch once great names become thinly veiled Chinese cars.
100% agree but chinese/italian fusion does sound like a good restaurant idea
Is the issue that the new owner would be Chinese?
At this point it’s not Italian any more then it would be if owned by Chery. Stellantis is a Dutch company run by a Portuguese guy who was educated in France. It’s basically just a brand.
I’m ambivalent about this topic, but wanted to see if I could comment and remain logged in as myself.
Also I would love to have a Quattroporte but would need to buy better shoes first.
That is Chery’s new marketing idea. Every new Maserati comes with Florentine loafers and egg rolls.
Maybe Chery will throw in some fashionable driving shoes from Temu, guaranteed to last the life of the transmission!