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.
Imparato, meanwhile, has been appointed as the new CEO of Maserati.
He replaces Santo Ficili, who was put in charge of both Maserati and Alfa Romeo in October 2024. Ficili is now chief operating officer of Maserati and remains the CEO of Alfa.
Stellantis said the reshuffle will allow Imparato to “focus full-time on driving performance improvements” at Maserati as well as 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 Ficili told Autocar earlier this year that reversing Maserati’s decline was “not an easy job”.
Ficili 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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