Growing pains for Maserati

Maserati Australia has finally launched the first of two overdue new models that are expected to more than double the Italian brand’s sales here in 2014, its centenary year.

Originally due here last August, the redesigned Quattroporte is now available in V8-powered GTS form ($319,800 plus on-road costs), with the V6-equipped Quattroporte S - which is expected to account for 70 per cent of sales - to follow late next month ($240,000 plus ORCs).

Despite tight supplies, Maserati expects to sell about 100 examples of its new flagship sedan in Australia this year, in addition to the handful that were air-freighted late last year to satisfy the demands of some keen local customers.

The all-new Ghibli , a smaller sports sedan aimed at buyers of top-end BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class models, was due here in April but may not arrive until June, and is expected to find around 200 homes here this year.

Excluding the GranTurismo coupe and GranCabrio convertible sports cars, sales of the new Quattroporte and all-new Ghibli will more than double Maserati Australia’s 2013 sales figure (134), with 300-odd customers representing a 30 per cent increase on its best sales year (201 in 2008).

Australia is the globe’s 14th largest market for luxury cars but ranks seventh in the Maserati world, giving the Trident brand a bigger market share here than any other country.

Maserati’s growth won’t stop there, however. A second all-new model called the Levante – an SUV based on the same new platform as the Quattroporte and Ghibli – will be revealed next year, before its Australian release in 2016.

Previously expected to be based on the same platform as sister company Jeep’s Grand Cherokee, the Levante will borrow its twin-turbo V6 and V8 petrol engines from the Quattroporte and Ghibli, with a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 on the horizon for all three models.

Globally, Maserati hopes to sell 50,000 cars a year by 2015, with Australia expected to account for about 1500 annual sales once supplies free up and the Levante is released here.

After its first SUV, Maserati will produce replacements for both its circa-$300K sports cars based on the new platform and there is speculation it will introduce a third, entry-level two-door model – a two-seat coupe aimed at the Porsche 911 and positioned between the Ghibli and Quattroporte in the low $200,000s.

Maserati delivered 6300 cars in 2012 and doubled that to over 12,000 last year, when it sold more than 5000 sports cars and took more than 24,000 orders, including 2000 in the last three weeks of December.

Unprecedented demand for his cars (Maserati expected the new Quattroporte to increase sales by only 10 per cent) appears to have vindicated CEO Harald Wester's plan to invest $1.4 billion euros in the new platform and production of both new sedans at a new factory outside Turin, Italy.

But unexpected demand in China, where 40 per cent of Quattroporte buyers are women under 35, North America, where Maserati sales were up 221 per cent last year before the Ghibli even goes on sale, and Europe, where demand for left-hand drive-only all-wheel drive versions of the Quattroporte is also soaring, has created problems.

Right-hand drive (RHD) production of the Ghibli began later than planned last month before sales commence in the UK in February, and the general manager of Maserati in Australia and New Zealand, Glen Sealey, is yet to confirm pricing and exact production timing with the company’s HQ in Modena.

“It’s an interesting problem, but it’s terrific that there’s so much demand,” he said. “I’d much prefer to have more demand than supply than the other way round. Production will catch up.

“We’ll know a lot more about Ghibli’s price position within a few months,” he added.

To cope with the dramatic sales uplift, local Maserati distributor European Automotive Imports has doubled its staff with the addition of a number of sales and technical training people at its Sydney HQ.

It will also add three more dealers.

New showrooms in Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney’s lower North Shore will soon join its seven existing retail outlets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland and Christchurch, bringing the total number Down Under to 10.

Maserati Australia will also air its first TV commercial in coming months.

Brought under Fiat control in 1993, the Italian sports-luxury brand was founded in December 1914 but didn’t produce its first fully-flegded road-going production car – the 3500 GT – until 1957.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...

Don't forget to register to comment on this article.