Stellantis Chief Executive Antonio Filosa told Italian lawmakers on 17 June that the group is engaged in advanced discussions with two potential partners for the Maserati brand, with a decision on which to pursue imminent. Filosa declined to name the candidates but said the chosen partner would “bring technologies and a series of excellent ideas” and that Maserati would present its own full strategic roadmap—including two new models—at a dedicated capital markets day in Modena in December.

Maserati has been deliberately excluded from Stellantis’ group-wide platform consolidation under the FaSTLAne 2030 plan, revealed in May, which folds mass-market brands including Jeep, Fiat and Peugeot onto the STLA architecture family. Last month, Filosa described Maserati as “different by nature” and therefore deserving of its own dedicated explanatory event. Given its status as a pure luxury brand with distinct and highly-demanding requirements for performance, heritage and materials specificity, it cannot easily align with the cost-efficiency strategies driving the wider restructuring. The brand is instead being treated as a discrete strategic problem requiring its own solution.

Given Stellantis’ growing reliance on Chinese partners for technology, materials and low-cost manufacturing, it is unsurprising that the most widely circulated candidates for the partnership are Huawei and JAC. What may occur is a joint venture structure similar in nature to Stellantis’ existing arrangements with Leapmotor and Dongfeng—both held at 51% Stellantis ownership. One strand of reporting from CarScoops suggests that the partnership could produce vehicles badged under both the Maserati name globally and a separate Maextro luxury brand in China. 

Filosa is on the record explicitly stating that neither Maserati nor the Cassino plant, which manufactures both Maserati and Alfa Romeo models, is for sale. He emphasised Cassino’s future is “closely tied” to Maserati’s and indicated that any partnership arrangement could also have implications for the Modena plant and the Pomigliano facility near Naples. There is a reason for framing it in this way: Stellantis is under pressure to restore its Italian manufacturing volumes, which hit a 70-year low of 380,000 units in 2025. These volumes recovered by 9.5% during Q1 2026, but there is a long way to go before the automaker returns to its historic highs in the seven-figure range. 

Maserati’s historic core lineup comprises the Grecale, GranCabrio, and GranTurismo

It is entirely likely that such a rise in volumes never occurs; the best routes towards restored production volumes also, unsurprisingly, run through Chinese partnerships. BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li confirmed in May that her company was engaged in talks with Stellantis about potentially acquiring one of its underused plants in Italy, but nothing has been confirmed at the time of writing.

Maserati’s recent commercial trajectory only serves to underline the urgency: sales have been declining sharply, the brand’s electric models have underperformed against both their internal targets and their luxury-segment rivals, and the product lineup—GranTurismo, GranCabrio, Grecale—is ageing while premium competitors have refreshed. A Chinese technology partner would solve the speed and cost problem of developing next-generation EV architecture, but it also introduces the brand dilution risk to which Stellantis is structurally most exposed. A Maserati perceived as fundamentally engineered in China, however Italian its design and assembly, will inevitably lose some degree of its lustre.

The December event will carry substantial weight for Stellantis’ Italian political relationships as much as for Maserati’s product strategy. Filosa has promised an “ambitious” plan with two new E-segment vehicles due by 2030, alongside updated versions of the GranTurismo, GranCabrio and Grecale. Whether the chosen partner’s identity—when disclosed—complicates or resolves the brand’s Italian-soul positioning is the question the December announcement will have to answer directly.