- Stellantis takes the investment to future Maserati products
- Aston Martin will reduce the work and delay the debut EV … again
- The luxury automotive industry continues to fight electrification
Both Aston Martin and Maserati are reassessing their plans for future electrification models, since budget and employment cuts force companies to decide whether there is an appetite for future EVs with recognizable performance badges.
Earlier this week, Aston Martin announced plans to reduce 5% of his workforce after the strong losses of the fourth quarter at the end of last year, according to The Guardian.
The problems of the supply chain and a cooling of demand in China have been cited as reasons for poor financial performance.
Although the brand has not linked job cuts directly to its future EV releases, Adrian Hallmark, the current executive director, told The Telegraph that electric cars are “a step too extreme” for many of its customers and that we will not see a completely electric Aston Martin until “the last part of this decade.”
We had to see the first attempt of the British brand to electrify its alignment this year, but the model was postponed until 2027 … and now it seems that it could be delayed even more.
Instead, Hallmark told The Telegraph that plug -in hybrid vehicles will be a priority, because “you get more torque in the acceleration phase but you still get all the benefits of the combustion engine when the electric motor becomes less efficient in the range of higher performance.”
The manufacturer of Luxury Italian sports car, Maserati, is also experiencing increasingly worrying sales figures, with its sales in more than 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 range of EV Folgore that includes grancabrio, granturismo and Grecale SUV, will have to limit since its owner Stellantis released a planned investment of £ 1.2 billion ($ 1.6 billion) this week.
The money had been destined to create new and exciting models, including a Maserati Maserati Maserati electrified and EVS replacements for the Quattroporte and Levante models.
According to Autocar, Stellantis’s financial director, Doug Ostermann, again attributed performance in China, noting that the company had greater expectations with respect to the luxury market and how fast it would go to electrification.
Luxury brands continue to face EV struggles
While it is disappointing that both Aston Martin and Maserati have had to climb their future EV plans, they are not the only luxury car manufacturers that fight while the world turns towards electrification.
Porsche said it would cut 1,900 jobs by 2029, according to the FT, since it fights with the bad demand of its electric vehicles, even reflecting on the possibility that internal combustion engines of footwear, which says that it will continue to develop, in models indicated above would be all electric.
Lotus Cars, which is currently owned by the China Geely multinational, was resurrected as a highly electrified brand, but says it will bring gas energy back next year with the new “Hyper Hybrid” technology.
The European CEO Dan Balmer told Evo magazine that he is “reading the room” when it comes to determining the best motor train to appease a market in constant evolution.
Unlike smaller and more cheaper electric vehicles, buyers in the luxury market have discouraged by listening price labels and even more painful residual values than battery packages and electric motors bring with them.
Add to this the persistent sense of range anxiety and the lack of gasoline engines V6, V8 and V12 Sonoros, and is demonstrating a recipe for disaster for those in the business of making desirable performance machines.
