Stellantis is considering putting Italian carmaker Maserati up for sale after shipments halved, triggering a €349m (£294m) writedown on the brand.
The owner of the Jeep, Peugeot and Vauxhall brands said revenues from its Maserati cars fell to €631m in the first six months of 2024, down from €1.3bn a year ago.
Carlos Tavares, Stellantis’ chief executive, said on Thursday the company was prepared to sell off underperforming brands, adding there was “absolutely no taboo” about ditching assets.
Maserati, whose supercars cost as much as £222,000, has pledged that all of its models will have an electric alternative from next year as part of its “Folgore” line – Italian for lightning. It also committed to a fully electric line up by 2030.
The company recorded its first operating loss since its owner Stellantis was created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s Peugeot in 2021.
The division lost €82m in the first half of the year, compared to a €121m profit 12 months earlier.
Stellantis has previously prided itself on ending the “boom and bust” of the luxury brand, saying it expected the division to be consistently profitable.
On Thursday, the company took a €300m writedown on the business, which Natalie Knight, its chief financial officer, said was down to “resetting” the division’s business plan. Maserati has been told to cut costs as it waits for its bet on EVs to pay off.
Maserati started selling its first electric vehicle, the £180,000 GranTurismo Folgore, in February, although it did not start delivering the cars until June, meaning it will have only had a minor impact on the figures.
Ms Knight told Bloomberg that Stellantis would consider what was the “best home” for the brand, while Mr Tavares said the company was preparing to shut down underperforming businesses and that they were “there to be leveraged”.
“If they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down,” he said. “We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money.”
Maserati has been rumoured as a potential candidate for an initial public offering, and Stellantis has said it would consider spinning off the business once it had been put on a more stable footing. However Mr Tavares appeared to rule out the idea last year.
The manufacturer sold just 3,200 vehicles in the second quarter of 2024, the lowest in several years.
Meanwhile the wider Stellantis group said profits have halved, sending shares in the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker down by 10pc.
Sales fell heavily in the US and Europe and the company said it was considering cutting prices in order to boost demand.
Mr Tavares called the figures “disappointing and humbling”, but said the company was going through a “very transitional period” ahead of a blitz of new models.
“This is a bump on the road that we are now fixing,” he said.
Many carmakers are suffering from weak demand, particularly for electric vehicles, as higher interest rates hit sales of new vehicles. Meanwhile they are facing growing competition from Chinese manufacturers.
Nissan, the Japanese manufacturer, said on Thursday that its quarterly profits had fallen by 99pc and cut its full-year profit forecasts by a fifth.
Mr Tavares said his company had triggered a “strategic review” of its UK business because of the country’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires manufacturers to gradually raise the proportion of electric cars they sell, starting at 22pc this year.
“We have a specific problem to solve in the UK,” he said. “The UK has shown to be with the ZEV mandate, a very difficult market, [it] is hurting significantly our business model. And this is triggering a strategic review of our business model, including the manufacturing footprint.
“We have two plants in the UK making BEVs [battery electric vehicles], as the UK government is asking for more BEVs. We cannot be in a position where our business model is damaged by the ZEV mandate.”
Mr Tavares said the company had been discussing the mandate with the British Government and that there had been an “intensive and productive dialogue” but that “so far, we don’t have the answers we need”.
His comments echo warnings from Maria Grazia Davino, Stellantis’ UK managing director, who said in June that the company could close plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton, where it makes vans, unless the Government relaxes its rules. Labour has pledged to restore the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
Source Agencies
