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Stellantis ready to kill brands and fix U.S. problems, CEO Tavares says

  MILAN — Stellantis is taking steps to fix weak margins and high inventory at its U.S. operations and will not hesitate to axe underperforming brands in its sprawling portfolio, its chief executive Carlos Tavares said on Thursday. The warning for lossmaking brands is a turnaround for Tavares, who has maintained since Stellantis was created in 2021 from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA that all of its 14 brands including Maserati, Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep have a future. "If they don't make money, we'll shut them down," Carlos Tavares told reporters after the world's No. 4 automaker delivered worse-than-expected first-half results, sending its shares down as much as 10%. "We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money." The automaker now also considers China's Leapmotor as its 15th brand, after it agreed to a broad cooperation with the group. Stellantis does not release figures for individual brands, except for Maserati which reported an 82 million euro adjusted operating loss in the first half. Some analysts say Maserati could possibly be a target for a sale by Stellantis, while other brands such as Lancia or DS might be at risk of being scrapped given their marginal contribution to the group's overall sales. Stellantis' Milan-listed shares were down as much as 12.5% on Thursday, hitting their lowest since August 2023. That brings the loss for the year so far to 22%, making them the worst performer among the major European automakers. Few automotive brands have been killed off since General Motors ditched the unprofitable Saturn and Pontiac during a U.S. government-led bankruptcy in the global financial crisis in 2008. Tavares is under pressure to revive flagging margins and sales and cut inventory in the United States as Stellantis bets on the launch of 20 new models this year which it hopes will boost profitability. Recent poor results from global carmakers have heightened worries about a weakening outlook for sales across major markets such as the U.S., whilst they also juggle an expensive transition to electric vehicles and growing competition from cheaper Chinese rivals. Japan's Nissan Motor saw first-quarter profit almost completely wiped out on Thursday and slashed its annual outlook, as deep discounting in the United States shredded its margins. Tavares said he would be working through the summer with his U.S. team on how to improve performance and cut inventory.

Maserati MC12 GT1 looks, sounds great storming VIR

Maserati has been celebrating its 100th anniversary all year, but recent visitors to Virginia International Raceway might have gotten to see one of the coolest highlights of the whole centenary. The brand took its already amazing MC12 GT1 racer and painted it up to commemorate its 100th birthday, dubbing the model Maserati MC12 GT1 Centenario. That would be neat enough, but the spectators at VIR actually got to watch and listen to this special edition racecar lap the track with its spectacular exhaust note singing a fantastic tune.
It's rather rare to see these beastly V12 racers on track in the US these days, but they were quite successful in FIA GT1 competition in Europe several years ago. The sound that they make perfectly matches those purposeful, low-slung looks. Switch this video into HD and turn up the speakers to experience a look at this fantastic racecar.

No surprise here, the Maserati Alfieri has been delayed again

It happened again. Maserati has reportedly delay the gorgeous Alfieri coupe, the concept version of which made its debut way back at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. According to a report by Autocar, the 2+2 sports car has been put on the back-burner and is now expected to arrive in 2020 – at the earliest. Giulio Pastore, general manager of Maserati Europe, told Autocar that the Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio are more vital to the automaker's lineup than the smaller Alfieri. Once Maserati replaces those aging models, it will then shift its focus onto the Alfieri, Pastore says. After the Alfieri concept was unveiled in 2014, reports emerged that it got the green light for production and that a production model would hit the road as soon as 2016. Then the delays started happening, with China's weakening car market as the culprit. More recently, a report claimed that Maserati would have the Alfieri on the road in 2018. With that now pushed back a few years, and the chance for more delays, the car might need a redesign before it goes into production. Related Video: Featured Gallery Maserati Alfieri Concept: Monterey 2014 View 9 Photos News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / AOL Maserati Maserati Coupe Future Vehicles Luxury Performance maserati alfieri maserati grancabrio