JAC Motors would stamp body shells in Hefei before shipment to Italy for final assembly under the Maserati badge.
Maserati delivered roughly 7,900 cars in 2025. That number is down about 85 percent from its 2017 peak. Two new electric models are now reportedly in development. Neither Stellantis nor Maserati has confirmed a commercial deal.
The reported program pairs Huawei's HarmonyOS Intelligent Mobility platform with JAC Motors' Zunjie Super Factory in Hefei — a combination that would give a brand posting a negative 27.3 percent adjusted operating margin access to Chinese manufacturing scale it cannot currently fund alone. According to Future Cars Daily, cited September 2025, mass production of the first model could begin in the second half of 2027, a timeline that would place Maserati in direct competition with Mercedes-AMG's reported electric GT SUV programme.
The Numbers That Made This Deal Necessary
Maserati's financial position frames everything. The brand recorded an adjusted operating loss of €198 million, equivalent to approximately $227 million at the exchange rate cited in reporting. Its adjusted margin stood at negative 27.3 percent. Volume collapsed from a reported peak of roughly 53,000 units in 2017 to around 7,900 in 2025 — a fall of approximately 45,100 units, or 85 percent over eight years. On those figures, each car sold in 2025 carried an implied loss of around €25,000 before any allocation of central costs. That arithmetic leaves limited room for self-funded platform development. Stellantis's broader industry restructuring pressures across 2025 and 2026 have already curtailed capital allocation across multiple marques, and Maserati's operating performance places it near the bottom of the group's priority list for fresh investment.
What Future Cars Daily Says the Deal Covers
According to Future Cars Daily, as relayed by CarNewsChina in September 2025, the reported arrangement divides responsibilities along national lines. Huawei would supply three distinct technology layers: its HarmonyOS Intelligent Mobility platform covering the smart cockpit and vehicle operating environment; the Qiankun ADS driver assistance software stack; and electric drive components including motors and associated power electronics. JAC Motors, operating through its Zunjie Super Factory in Hefei, would take responsibility for whole-vehicle engineering and manufacturing. Maserati's contribution, as described in those reports, covers exterior and interior design styling together with access to its overseas dealer and distribution network. No signed commercial agreement between the three parties has been publicly announced as of the date of this article, and no production split percentage between Hefei and Italy has been formally disclosed by any party.
The SKD Model and What It Leaves Unanswered
The reported Semi Knocked Down export arrangement raises a question the current reporting does not answer cleanly. Under the described plan, body shells would be manufactured at the Zunjie factory in Hefei, then shipped to Italy for final assembly before delivery to customers. Domestically, the same vehicles would sell under the Maextro name; internationally, they would carry Maserati badging. The Middle East, Italy, France and Germany are named as the first target export markets. What remains unresolved is the precise threshold of Italian work content that would allow the cars to be marketed as Italian-assembled under EU rules on origin. This distinction matters: the EU Industrial Accelerator Act and associated origin requirements are tightening, and an SKD programme could face origin classification challenges that a conventional import would not. Neither Maserati nor Stellantis has publicly addressed this point.
Filosa's Ceiling on Collaboration
Stellantis chief executive Antonio Filosa placed a public limit on any partnership's scope. "Maserati needs industry partners but will not sell the brand," he said — a statement that defines both what the company is willing to offer and what it will not surrender regardless of financial pressure. The quote, reported in September 2025, matters because it signals that any Huawei or JAC involvement is bounded: technology, manufacturing capacity and components can come from outside; brand ownership and the associated distribution relationships cannot. That ceiling shapes the commercial logic of the whole arrangement. Maserati brings something Chinese domestic players lack — established dealer networks across Europe and the Gulf — and Filosa appears to be treating that network as the non-negotiable asset in any negotiation. Compare this to McLaren's approach to SUV expansion, which has relied on retained British engineering rather than external platform partnerships.
Where the Two New Models Sit Against the Existing Folgore Range
The two vehicles under discussion would extend rather than replace Maserati's current electric portfolio. The GranTurismo Folgore, a grand tourer with a three-motor configuration producing 761 horsepower in its launch specification, and the Grecale Folgore, a mid-size SUV, already occupy the marque's electric roster. The reported new GT is described as a larger car than the GranTurismo Folgore; the reported new SUV sits in the mid-to-large category, potentially above the Grecale Folgore's footprint. If both reach production in 2027, Maserati would operate four electric model lines simultaneously — a volume ambition that looks difficult to reconcile with 7,900 total deliveries in 2025. For context, BMW's four-motor M3, confirmed for 2027 with 1,300 hp, targets broadly the same performance tier from a manufacturer selling over two million units annually — a scale advantage Maserati cannot match without external volume support.
Maserati's Modena plant, which assembled the GranTurismo and GranCabrio for decades before a 2019 closure and subsequent reopening for the current generation, would be the candidate Italian facility for any SKD final assembly work — though no official designation has been made. The brand has not confirmed which model would enter production first. The complete Maserati model history and specifications are catalogued in the Global Auto Index manufacturer database.
