Stellantis is still ahead of Maserati’s Trident?
After the discontinuation of production of the Levante which effectively blocked activities in Mirafiori and the sudden closure of the Grugliasco hub (communicated in the worst possible way, through an announcement appearing on Immobiliare.it), Stellantis is preparing to lower the shutters of the Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena
In Stellantis' plans, the luxury brand founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by Alfieri Maserati seems increasingly marginal.
IS THE EMILIAN INNOVATION LAB CLOSING?
The Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena, inaugurated just five years ago with the intention of giving new prestige to the Emilian Motor Valley in a period – that of the ecological transition – which is putting car manufacturers in difficulty, is probably moving towards definitively lowering its shutters. historical ones, surpassed by the aggressive Chinese brands.
La Gazzetta di Modena writes: “What concerns Maserati di Modena is a stream of negative news. In fact, in the next few days the transfer of the 400 workers employed until now in via Emilia Ovest to the offices of the tower overlooking the factory in via Ciro Menotti will begin. Within the year the large former Orlandi building will thus remain an empty shell.”
WHAT IS PRODUCED IN MODENA
Currently in Modena the MC20 super sports car is essentially being produced in its Cielo (spider) and GT2 variants for racing. Added to these is the Maserati Folgore. The other Trident cars, GranCabrio and Grecale, were assigned to Mirafiori and Cassino.
THE GEM OF MADE IN ITALY HAS THE HOURS COUNTED
The Innovation Lab was conceived and wanted by the former CEO of the then FCA group Sergio Marchionne to design innovative solutions and new models, including the MC20 and the Folgore line of electric motors adopted by all Maserati models, with departments at I also work on the latest generation Alfa Romeos, from the Stelvio to the Giulia to the Tonale.
We can still read on the official Maserati website : “All the Maseratis of today and tomorrow are designed in this structure of excellence. Here digital processes support product development by applying the exclusive Maserati recipe which, through an integrated approach, places man at the center from the early stages: attention to the customer is inserted into the world of virtual simulation with an exclusive mix between hardware and software.”
And, again: “The Product Development (or Technical Management) center makes use of the work of more than 1,500 technicians (divided into the Modena offices in Via Emilia Ovest, in Viale Ciro Menotti, Via delle Nazioni, in the Grugliasco and Balocco). In particular, in the headquarters in Via Emilia Ovest, which extends over a total surface area of 33,744 m2 (of which 14,000 m2 are covered and 19,744 m2 uncovered), more than 1,100 people carry out their activities, the vast majority of them engineers, coming from 17 different countries. . The very young and dynamic environment has an average age of around 37 years: almost half of the employees are under 35 and 20% are even under 30. The organization has grown considerably in recent years, attracting the best talents from the main Italian universities, with which Maserati actively collaborates.”
WHAT THE UNIONS SAY
The CGIL is very harsh: "They call them efficiency improvements, rationalization of spaces, but Stellantis also pursues the policy of cost reduction in Modena by returning to the city an empty, recently renovated space, the former Officina Orlandi in via Emilia Ovest which Marchionne had strongly wanted to expand the design and research offer on the Italian territory and in particular in the land of engines.”
And again: "We lose activities such as the static-dynamic simulators (transferred to Balocco), the solar refraction study benches on crystals (sent to Pomigliano), some benches defined as HMI (human machine interface) in which research activities were carried out and in where the autonomous driving project was located. All the remaining benches, in particular dedicated to software and electronic configuration, remain in Modena together with the development of the Folgore electric car".
Therefore from the CGIL they conclude: "The judgment that we jointly give as a union is that through these company policies, not guided by a fair reorganization of the entire automotive sector, we will increasingly find ourselves in a logic of loss of strategic appeal for our entire country, where it is completely clear that the current trend is to disadvantage and reduce Italian production".
“If – CGIL's thrust – even on a very high-end product we cannot see adequate investments and new car launches (necessary to stay in this market), the ugly turn that the discussion between Stellantis and the government institutions is taking can only generate great concern about the future not only of Maserati Auto, but of all Italian factories.”
THE MASERATI ENGINE IS SOBING
Looking at the 2023 sales data, the only model that is doing quite well is the Grecale which represented 53% of the brand's global volume.
“In reality – the specialized newspaper motor1.com noted a few weeks ago – adding the preliminary results of January, February and March 2024, Grecale recorded a drop of 11% compared to the first quarter of 2023. If we add the massive drops recorded from the Levante (-71%) and the Ghibli (-69%), then the situation is difficult for Maserati. The result is that the brand's estimated global sales during the first three months of this year fell by 29% to approximately 4,500 units.”
The main cause, comparing the data for 2023 and 2022, concerns the fact that the best-selling models had no successors: "the Ghibli, the Quattroporte and, above all, the Levante represented 53% of global sales in 2022."
FOR MASERATI THE SUN SETTING IN THE EAST
This is just the latest bad news for the Trident brand, which has just suffered the closure of another plant where research and development was carried out, in Grugliasco, also known as the former Bertone production complex, acquired in 2009 by FCA to start the production of Maserati models near Turin, employing 1400 workers.
The news of its disposal arrived awkwardly, with even greater media coverage than the low profile that Stellantis wanted to maintain, given that instead of the usual press release , an announcement was published last autumn on the immobiliare.it website. “The plant – we read in the sales notice – is in good maintenance conditions following recent and significant renovations, and currently hosts part of the Carrozzeria Maserati production line, the decommissioning of which will be completed by the end of 2023 ”.
The fear of the workers at the Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena is precisely that of ending up like Grugliasco. Also in Piedmont, the exit from production of the Maserati Levante effectively interrupted the production of Mirafiori , with the redundancy fund activated for a good part of the first six months of 2024.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-spunta-ancora-il-tridente-di-maserati/ on Sun, 02 Jun 2024 14:26:11 +0000.