Will Maserati speak Chinese? What do we know
The usual mid-August calm swept away by a rumor that insistently rebounded throughout China, up to reaching Europe: Maserati is about to be bought by Xpeng. The Asian manufacturer denies it after a few hours. But who spread that 'fake news' and why?
Just a few days ago, Carlos Tavares , CEO of Stellantis, had forcefully excluded the spin-off option for Maserati, thus removing the search for capital to support the electrification of the Trident from the table, in the wake, for example, of what was done by recently from VW with Porsche : "We have no intention of listing Maserati because we believe there are business opportunities to grow its net revenues and profitability". The words spoken by Tavares at the end of July about possible plans to bring Maserati to the Stock Exchange as an independent entity left no room for doubt: «We will do it ourselves for the benefit of our shareholders. There is no spin-off hypothesis on the table». In short, Maserati's horizon did not seem to hold any big surprises. In the last few hours, suddenly, there has been news that will have alarmed sports car fans and, certainly, also someone from the parts of the Made in Italy department; Is Maserati about to be sold to China?
MASERATI FOLGORA CHINA
The love between the House of the Trident and the Asian country comes from afar. The Modenese company opened the Maserati China branch in Shanghai in August 2004, which distributes and imports cars directly from Italy through its network of over 60 dealerships strategically located in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well.
In all, the Modena-based company has about 100 employees. Certainly not a few, given that it does not assemble anything in the Asian country. However, it must be taken into account that 28% of the Maseratis sold end up in China, where the Trident has placed 60,000 cars in 20 years.
The Chinese ruling class likes European luxury cars, especially when they combine sportiness with the comforts offered by new technologies. It is no coincidence that last April Maserati took advantage of the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show to present the Maserati Grecale Folgore to the world, the Trident's first fully electric SUV.
He was joined on stage by the new Maserati GranTurismo introduced for the first time on the Asian market in both the combustion engine version and the 100% electric version, the GranTurismo Folgore.
IS CHINA GETTING CLOSER TO MASERATI?
As Quattroruote writes, news has started bouncing around in the last few hours on Chinese, then American and then European social networks and sites, rousing the car world from its mid-August torpor: Maserati is about to be sold to some Chinese giant.
WHO IS XPENG AND WHAT DOES IT DO? POSSIBLE BUYER OF THE TRIDENT
Precisely at XPeng, better known to analysts or experts as Xiaopeng Motors or Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co. It is a manufacturer born only in 2014 by the will of entrepreneurs Henry Xia (Xia Heng) and He Tao , both former executives of the big GAC Group (Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor Co). The capitals instead are those of He Xiaopeng (later president of Xpeng), founder of UCWeb and former executive of Alibaba, the vice president of Alibaba Joseph Tsaie and Lei Jun founder of Xiaomi.
BETWEEN ALIBABA AND XIAOMI INVESTORS
And the now former startup has a privileged partnership with the giant that develops and produces smartphones. In November 2019 Xpeng raised $400 million through a fundraiser, where Xiaomi was one of Xpeng's main investors.
THE WELL KNOWN PASSION FOR ELECTRIC CARS FROM XIAOMI
Let's not forget that the group led by Lei Jun invested more than 3 billion yuan in 2022 alone, or about 405 million euros, to let Xiaomi enter the electric car market and intends to set aside a total of 10 billion yuan, about 1 35 billion euros, in this decade to be poured into the new sustainable mobility division.
WHAT MODENA HAS TO DO WITH IT ALL
It happens that the EV sedan with which Xiaomi intends to challenge Tesla, produced in Beijing, has been nicknamed by the Chinese with the code name Modena, which is then the headquarters, as everyone knows, of the House of the Trident.
But, it should be clarified before giving the fly on the noses of the Web's conspiracy theorists, it's just a coincidence that refers to the Emilian Motor Valley, the cradle of dream cars loved all over the world.
OTHER BACKERS OF XPENG AND THE MOVES TO REACH EUROPE
Among the lenders of the former Guangzhou startup we also find Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Alibaba, Qatar Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Mubadala sovereign wealth fund.
In short, by now even XPeng, like many other manufacturers of the dragon, has the funds and firepower suitable to prepare the landing of its electric cars in the Old Continent and could therefore be looking for indigenous brands, in the wake of what SAIC did with MG (with the difference, far from marginal, that unlike the accounts of the British brand, those of the Modena company are fine).
THE ASSURANCE FROM CHINA: NO INTEREST FOR MASERATI
It is certainly the Asian brand with the most connections with the West, since it has design and development offices in Mountain View in California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. However, there had never been any signs, at least until yesterday, that Xpeng was willing to shop among European luxury car manufacturers, although the turnover (about 3.293 billion dollars) would allow it.
It is no coincidence that after a few hours, when the rumor had reached us too, Xpeng told the economic newspaper Shanghai Securities News that, for the moment, "the builder has not planned any acquisitions". It remains to be understood who spread that rumor which took shape to the point of causing a denial by the potential buyer. And why .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/maserati-parlera-cinese-cosa-sappiamo/ on Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:35:33 +0000.