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Mike Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is pleased with Maserati.
The 105-year-old Italian logo has been a component of Fiat since the early 1990s and joined Chrysler when Fiat rescued Detroit’s automaker during the 2009 currency crisis.
But while Maserati has been promoting his fashion cars in global markets for years and capitalized madness for high-end SUVs with the Levant, the logo has fallen into the field of luxury. Expected annual sales of 75,000 and profit margins of 15% did not. materialize, with a total of 19300 sales in 2019 discouraging.
“So far, it’s been painful from a monetary point of view,” Manley said Thursday at a media event in Modena, where the Maserati plant is located.
The occasion combined a revelation of Maserati’s first new supercar since 2005, the MC20, with an ambitious plan to reinvent Maserati as the standard-bearer of the brand’s legacy and innovation, the advent of electrified propulsion systems. thirteen new models until 2024.
“The team has a vision of how to grow,” Manley said. “This is our last year of transition. Next year, the logo will be profitable. “
Manley’s in a complicated position. He succeeded as CEO of FCA in 2018, following the death of Sergio Marchionne. Manley had overseen Jeep, a dominant logo that prints cash for FCA amid a boom in SUV sales in the United States.
But within a year, FCA and the French group PSA have reached a merger agreement, which is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2021, Manley said he intended to remain in the merged entity, but PSA CEO Carlos Tavares will be the CEO. merger. group, called Stellantis.
When Marchionne led FCA, a possible split between Maserati and his sister Alfa Romeo became widespread, following an incredibly successful initial public offering from Ferrari in 2015 (Ferrari’s market capitalization of $35 billion now exceeds $25 billion in CFA). for the argument, it can be much more valuable on its own than caught up in FCA.
Manley recalled conversations within the FCA before Ferrari’s ID in which he and other executives believe the logo may be worth $7 billion. Despite this story, he crushed any concept about Maserati’s separation from Stellantis, at least in the short term.
“The price we can raise is being given to the group,” he said.
But he added that if the expected margins of 15% materialize, the option could return.
“Several years ago, we have the same speculation,” he said, “but not now. “