Maserati’s North American chief, Al Gardner has confirmed that the luxury car brand will not be shifting to electric powered engines anytime soon. A key reason for this relates to the brand’s image and the expectation that the people who are most likely to purchase a Maserati’ will want to continue having gas powered cars.
Gardner said: “This is a brand that needs combustion engines…It needs that raw emotion.” The statement is connected to a reorientation of the car firm. Gardner added the Maserati brand needed to return to its roots, playing on its racing car origins and marketing back towards speed and efficiency.
As Green Car Magazine puts it, Maserati is counting on “the individualized character of internal combustion engines to stand out from the nearly silent crowd in the mainly-electric future.”
An opportunity arose for Maserati to change direction when the company announced in May 2019 that it was to no longer use engines made by Ferrari (these were the V-6 and V-8 units). Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri stated: “Eventually, we will no longer supply engines to Maserati, which actually from our perspective is actually a good thing, both from a margin perspective, but also the fact that we can transfer a lot of the labor that’s been focused on the engines to the car side of the business.”
The renouncement does not mean Maserati will never develop electric powered vehicles. The company is developing some hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles. However, for the time being at least, the primary ficus will be on combustion -engine driven sports cars, like the new Alfieri model.
