- Stellantis draws investments in future Maserati products
- Aston Martin will cut jobs and delay debut EV … again
- The luxury car industry continues to struggle with electrification
Both Aston Martin and Maserati reassess their plans for future electrification models as budget and job cuts force companies to decide if there is an appetite for future EVs that carry the recognizable performance forms.
Earlier this week, Aston Martin announced plans to cut 5% of his workforce after heavy losses in the fourth quarter at the end of last year, according to The Guardian.
Problems with the supply chain and a cooling of demand in China have been mentioned as reasons for the poor financial results.
Although Marque has not linked the job cuts directly to its future EV launches, Adrian Hallmark, the current CEO, The Telegraph, told electric cars “too extreme one step” for many of its customers and that we will not see a fully electric Aston Martin until “the last part of this decade”.
We should see the British Marque’s first attempt to electrify his line-up this year, but the model was later postponed until 2027 … and now looks like it could be delayed further.
Instead, Hallmark The Telegraph told that plug-in hybrid cars will be a priority because “you get more torque in the acceleration phase, but you still get all the benefits of internal combustion engine when the electric motor becomes less effective in the higher range of performance.”
Luxury Italian sports car manufacturer Maserati is also experiencing increasingly worrying sales figures, with its sales falling by over 50% last year, falling from 26,600 in 2023 to only 11,300 in 2024, according to Carscoops.
The company, which only recently announced its Folgore series EVs, which includes Grancabrio, Granturismo and Grecale SUV, will have to limp as its owner Stellantis pulled the plug on a scheduled £ 1.2 billion ($ 1.6 billion) investment this week.
The money was earmarked to create new and exciting models, including an electrified Maserati MC20 Supercar and EV replacements for the Quattroport and Levante models.
According to Autocar, Stellantis’ CFO Doug Ostermann again accused performance in China, noting that the company had greater expectations for the luxury market and how fast it would turn over to electrification.
Luxury brands are still facing EV fights
Although it is disappointing that both Aston Martin and Maserati have had to scale down their future EV plans, they are not the only luxury car manufacturers fighting when the world is against electrification.
Porsche said it would cut 1,900 jobs in 2029, according to FT, as it is struggling with poor demand for its electric vehicles, even going so far as to mull over the possibility of shoe -hired internal combustion engines, as it says it will continue to develop, to models that it previously mentioned would be all electric.
Lotus Cars, currently owned by the Chinese multinational geely, was resurrected as a very electrified brand, but it says it will bring back gas power next year with new “Hyper Hybrid” technology.
European CEO Dan Balmer told Evo magazine that he “reads the space” when it comes to determining the best drive line to satisfy an ever-developing market.
Unlike smaller and cheaper electric vehicles, buyers in the luxury market have been exposed by eye -watering price tags and even more painful remaining values that battery packs and electric engines bring with them.
Add to this the lingering sense of range anxiety and the lack of Sonorous V6, V8 and V12 petrol engines, and it shows a recipe for disaster for those who are in the process of producing desirable performance machines.
