Maserati safe for now: Stellantis forced to walk back comments from its CEO it could sell off the luxury Italian brand

Maserati Gran Cabrio

Stellantis has walked back comments from its CEO, Carlos Tavares, in which he stated the company would shut down brands if they didn't make money.

This caused some analysts to point the finger at Maserati and its €82m ($136m) loss so far in 2024.

Now Stellantis has been forced to clarify and state it has “no intention” to sell off Maserati or any of its other automotive brands.

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Speaking to Reuters in Milan last week, Tavares said bluntly of his company's brands: “if they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down”.

“We cannot afford to have brands that don’t make money,” he said.

But in a statement, Stellantis – which owns Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Peugeot, Ram, Jeep and Citroen – sought to reaffirm confidence in the Italian automaker by restating its “unwavering commitment to Maserati’s bright future as the unique luxury brand of the 14 Stellantis brands”.

Alfa Romeo Junior

The company also reaffirmed its 10-year commitment to each of its individual brands, something Tavares had seemingly trashed with his comments earlier this week.

“Stellantis reaffirms its commitment to its entire broad portfolio of 14 iconic brands and recalls that each of them has a 10-year horizon to build a profitable and sustainable business, while recognising that market volatility and temporary situations may cause fluctuations,” the statement read.

It’s not the first time this year that Stellantis has been embroiled in controversy.

Fiat 500e

In April, the brand was forced to change the name of its new Alfa Romeo SUV from “Milano” to “Junior” just a few days after announcing it, after the Italian government ruled against Stellantis using a name of Italian origin (the Junior is built in Poland).

The company has struggled on the sales charts this year, recording a 48% downturn in net profits since this time last year.

In Australia, only two of their eight brands on sale – Alfa Romeo and Peugeot – have recorded positive sales growth this year to date.