Is Maserati going the way of Volvo and Lotus cars? Speculation is rife that Stellantis, the automotive group that owns Maserati among a lot of other brands, might be putting it up for sale. According to a Reuters report, consulting firm McKinsey has been appointed to work out a future for it that could possibly involve selling it as well. If that happens, it could be an attractive proposition for, say, Chinese automaker Chery, which does not yet have a brand that Western car buyers find suitably attractive and, hence, finds it difficult to break into those markets.

Things have been shifting around in Stellantis in general and Maserati in particular. Last December, Stellantis’s then CEO Carlos Tavares left quite suddenly. In 2024, Maserati sales fell to about 11,300 units from about 26,600 the previous year. In February 2025, Stellantis pulled the plug on a proposed 1.50-billion-euro investment in the company for new models. That, in effect, killed off the electric version of the MC20 supercar that was supposed to be called the MC20 Folgore.

In April, Stellantis, under chairman John Elkann, appointed McKinsey to look at Maserati and Alfa Romeo to figure what to do with them. In May, Maserati announced that it will bring back the production of its GranCabrio and GranTurismo to its plant in Modena, Italy, from Stellantis’s Mirafiori plant in Turin, essentially cutting down on the spread of operations. In June, Stellantis’s new CEO Antonio Filosa took over the reins and the future of Maserati will depend on how he sees the future. In fact, Tavares’s exit is rumoured to be a result of his refusal to jettison any of Stellantis’s 14 brands.

Meanwhile, just about a month after investment in new models was cancelled, in March 2025, the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) Maserati MC20 shattered records in autonomous driving, blazing down the Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility runway at 318kmph (197.7mph), showing off the company’s technological prowess. In fact, the MC20 continues to compete and win various races and is the halo car for the company.

The problem with selling off Maserati for Stellantis is that if that happens it will not have a luxury brand to speak of. Ferrari, earlier a Fiat subsidiary, is now effectively a publicly held company. Reuters reports that the Stellantis board is divided about selling the brand that is over a hundred years old with a logo that’s in use for about 80 years. But Maserati is bleeding and Stellantis needs to focus its resources meaningfully to push brands rather than spread them so thinly across all its brands that it sees results nowhere.

So, some Chinese medicine might well be what the doctor ordered.