How to fix Maserati

Maserati has a problem, said one keen observer last month. He pointed out that the marque was losing money, its marketing was poor and its positioning in the market unclear. It’s just another opinion and everybody has one, except that this opinion belonged to Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, the group that owns Maserati.

A week earlier Tavares had fired Davide Grasso, Maserati CEO since 2019, because of it. What Tavares didn’t say was how long his company would continue to prop up this loss-making brand. In the summer Stellantis moved to quell rumours that Maserati might soon be up for sale, but even if the Italian car maker has the support of its parent company for now, it’s clear all is not well on Modena’s Viale Ciro Menotti.

But wait a minute. Grasso took up his post in 2019, saw Maserati through Covid then presided over three consecutive years of profitability (€141m in 2023). There are British luxury car makers who’d still be draping bunting across the production halls after posting results like that. So why has Tavares smelted Neptune’s trident, reforged it into an axe and lopped off heads with it?