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Maserati orders triple on strength of Quattroporte demand in China

Considering Maserati sold all of 6,300 cars globally in 2012, its goal of selling 50,000 by 2015 seemed like a bit of a stretch to say the least, but it turns the Fiat-owned automaker was on to something. Reuters is reporting that Maserati has already received about 17,000 orders for cars this year, with help from the new 2014 Quattroporte and strong demand in China.
The US continues to be the top market for Maserati sales, but the report quotes Harald Wester, brand chief executive, as saying that China is now the top market for Quattroporte. As big of an improvement as this is it bears mentioning that the Ghibli isn't even on sale yet and the Levante SUV, a redesigned GranTurismo and a new 911-fighting coupe are still waiting in the pipeline.

Maserati confirms next Quattroporte, Levante will be EV-only

Maserati's lineup will look a lot different in the second half of the 2020s than it does in 2022. The company confirmed that the Levante and the Quattroporte will be replaced by electric models, and it announced that the Ghibli, its entry-level car, will retire without a successor. "What we see in the market is that there is a transition from sedans to SUVs. There is still a very clear demand for sport sedans, but we believe that we can serve customers even better by substituting the Ghibli and the Quattroporte with just one new sport sedan," explained Francesco Tonon, the Italian company's head of product planning, during a press conference. We don't know when the Ghibli will retire yet. Executives aren't worried about losing sales by axing the Ghibli. The long-awaited Grecale crossover scheduled to make its debut online on March 22 will likely become the best-selling Maserati model with relative ease due to its positioning, and it will neatly fill the void left by the sedan at the bottom of the company's range. And, the next generation of the Quattroporte will carry the sedan torch into the 2020s. "We strongly believe that there is a future for the sedan, but probably not for two sedans. One will be enough to meet demand," Tonon noted. It's too early to provide concrete details about the next-generation Levante and Quattroporte. Both are due out in 2025 at the earliest. However, what's already set in stone is that neither car will be available with a gasoline-burning engine. Both will be all electric, all the time. "We are focused on delivering the best EV and the best electric large SUV. There will be no ICE and no PHEVs; just electric," Tonon said.

Ferrari to stop supplying Maserati with its engines

The Ferrari Q1 earnings call was full of information, and perhaps the biggest revelation was that Ferrari is going to stop supplying engines to Maserati. CEO Louis Camilleri broke the news, and The Motley Fool posted a transcript of the whole call online. "Eventually, we will no longer supply engines to Maserati, which actually from our perspective is actually a good thing, both from a margin perspective, but also the fact that we can transfer a lot of the labor that's been focused on the engines to the car side of the business," Camilleri says. Maserati has used Ferrari engines (arguably, one of the most compelling reasons to buy a Maserati) in its vehicles since 2002, a little while after Fiat passed Maserati off to the prancing horse. The partnership continued as both Ferrari and Maserati were under the same house at FCA. Then when Ferrari was spun off from FCA in 2015, they kept the supply steady to Maserati. Those engines include a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 and a 4.7-liter naturally aspirated V8. Camilleri said Ferrari will officially stop in 2021 or 2022, with no intention of supplying anybody with engines beyond that. Of course, this leaves Maserati high and dry with no engines for its growing lineup. Maserati will have to reach into the FCA parts bin, find a new outside supplier or develop its own engines. Battery electric sounds out of the question. As of now, there doesn't appear to be a clear plan going forward. We've reached out to Maserati to see if they have any comment on the situation as it stands.