Stellantis has appointed a new head of its European operations, removing Jean-Philippe Imparato from its senior leadership team after a year.
Emanuele Cappellano, the head of Stellantis’s commercial vehicle business, has been named as his successor.
Stellantis said the reshuffle will allow Imparato to “focus full-time on driving performance improvements” at Maserati, where the role of CEO was added to his plate in June when new Stellantis boss Antonio Filosa took charge.
As part of the reshuffle, Imparato is now also tasked with taking more of a role with Stellantis & You, the firm’s retail network.
Maserati stands out as one of the worst-performing brands in Stellantis’s portfolio, having made a loss of €139 million (£120.5m) during the first half of this year, and a loss of €260 million (£225.5m) in the entirety of 2024.
The mounting losses have sparked an abundance of rumours surrounding a potential sale of the Maserati brand, amid a slump in profitability – and share prices – for parent firm Stellantis. The conglomerate has fervently denied any reports to that effect, but former CEO – and now chief operating officer – Santo Ficili told Autocar earlier this year that reversing Maserati’s decline was “not an easy job”.
Ficili – who is also CEO of Alfa Romeo – said his priorities for Maserati were to improve “product competitiveness”, improve marketing of the cars and to “re-engage” with the dealer network, though he did not expect to return it to profitability in 2025.
The brand has dramatically reduced its investment in EVs: earlier this year it put its electric supercar, the MC20 Folgore, on ice due to a lack of demand; and last year it delayed the next-generation Quattroporte EV until 2028 as the brand sought to take “zero risks” on its performance. Meanwhile, Ficili said, it was exploring “synergies” with Alfa Romeo as it considered developing a new range of mild- and plug-in-hybrid models. It also launched the MCPura, a refreshed version of the combustion-engined MC20.
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