“Maserati is not for sale.” This is what Antonio Filosa told the Italian Parliament on June 17, 2026. Nevertheless, the Stellantis chief executive confirmed that the brand is “negotiating with two major partners capable of contributing technologies.” Those partners would be the Chinese manufacturers Huawei and JAC.
And Maserati is facing substantial difficulties. In 2025, the brand only registered 7,800 cars worldwide, which is half of what Ferrari sold in the same year. For Maserati, this represents a 30% drop in a single year. Yet to put it in context, two years earlier, in 2023, it still sold 26,600 cars, and more than 51,000 in 2017. Since then, it has sold 84% fewer.
A Huawei-branded Maserati? Yes, by 2027
Maserati is in trouble. Very much so. Antonio Filosa knows that selling the brand could be seen as a betrayal. After all, he had to appear before the Italian Parliament to explain that no, the brand is not for sale, but as it is plummeting toward the abyss, external help is needed to recover. And to that end, he intends to repeat Leapmotor’s move, namely, Chinese cars manufactured in its European factories.
Filosa clarified that all new alliances in Italy will be structured similarly to those signed with the Chinese firms Leapmotor and Dongfeng, i.e., through joint ventures in which Stellantis will own 51%.
Stellantis will own 51% of the company, but the cars, their technology and development will be Chinese. For Stellantis, the short-term objective is to have vehicles to manufacture so as not to shut factories at very low costs, since all development investment is Chinese. The hypothetical mass production of the two new Maseratis with Chinese DNA could begin in the second half of 2027. Such tight timelines imply one thing: badge engineering. In other words, a Chinese-made car barely altered with a Maserati badge.
It is not yet known which Chinese models from those brands would serve as the base for these future Maseratis. Currently, Huawei offers two strong candidates that could serve as the foundation for Maserati’s proposal.
The Huawei AITO M9, a luxury SUV rivaling the BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS.
The first one is the AITO M9 (5.28 m in length). It is a premium SUV that competes with the BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS and packs advanced technology such as HarmonyOS, ADS 4.0, and LiDAR. It also offers a sedan, the Luxeed S7 (4.97 m) built on an 800V platform.
The executive has assured Italian lawmakers that there are no plans to sell Maserati or the Cassino plant (where the Maserati Grecale and the Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio are produced). The factory’s future will be “closely linked” to the Trident brand’s fate, and Maserati will remain “an icon of Italian style.”
Moreover, Filosa stated that the Modena plant, where Maserati models are assembled, will be part of the alliance. “What could happen in Cassino, as in other locations, are joint efforts for the development and production of models.”
What does Maserati’s future hold? After years without launching new models, Stellantis’ top executive has said that the brand’s new industrial plan, to be unveiled in December, is “ambitious” and will include two key new models: an SUV and a high-performance sedan, in the same league as the Maserati Levante and Quattroporte.
Images | Maserati, Aito
