As the electric Folgore strategy has failed on the Italian trident brand, the car maker has reached out to the Chinese smart-car tech company Huawei and the manufacturer JAC to explore a collaboration.

The question is what this could entail for the brand’s defined Italian luxury image, as well as its prospects on the US market. 

Maserati is looking east to save itself. Stellantis, the parent company of the struggling Modena-based luxury brand, is in advanced discussions with Huawei and JAC Motors over a long-term industrial partnership that would see future Maserati electric vehicles built on Chinese technology and Chinese production lines.

Chinese platform

The talks, first reported by the Italian daily Milano Finanza, were also confirmed by sources close to Reuters. The deal would focus on Huawei’s Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance platform and could yield a first jointly developed vehicle before the end of 2027.

This possible partnership is born of necessity. Maserati shipped fewer than 8,000 vehicles globally last year – less than Ferrari – and keeps losing money. From €260 million in 2024 to €198 million in 2025. Moreover, its all-electric Folgore models are seriously underperforming. 

The price of the facelifted GranTurismo/GranCabrio Folgore was reduced by €30,000 in Belgium to boost sales. And in the US, incentives worth €70,000 are reported to entice some interest in the electric sports car. 

Maserati as a label

Stellantis is desperately looking for a lifeline to fix Maserati. Following McKinsey’s advice to further collaborate with Alfa Romeo, it seems the company is now turning to Chinese partners, who can at least manufacture at a cost-competitive scale.

The planned collaboration could run deep, and effectively hand over product development to the Chinese partners. According to Finanza, Huawei would take the lead on product definition and advanced on-board technology, essentially acting as the brain of the operation. 

JAC, the Anhui-based manufacturer with joint-venture experience that includes Volkswagen, would handle engineering and production.

Maserati’s contribution? Design, brand heritage, and access to its international dealer network. In other words, the Italian side brings the badge and styling, while the Chinese side brings the architecture, software stack, and factory.

Dual branding

The deal, apparently focused on battery-electric models, also reportedly includes a dual-branding arrangement. The same vehicle could be sold in China under JAC’s Maextro luxury marque, while international markets would get it with Maserati’s trident badge.

Maextro is already home to the S800, an ultra-luxury electric sedan developed with Huawei that competes with Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls-Royce in the Chinese market.

For Huawei and JAC, a partnership with Maserati would provide a bridge into global luxury markets. For Maserati, it offers a shortcut to relevance in the world’s largest EV market.

But though Maserati would indeed remain relevant in this way in the highly competitive Chinese market, the side effects could be devastating in the Western world. At the time of the last Ghibli generation, the brand was already torched for using too many components from Alfa Romeo. Chinese technology would fare even worse in the eyes of many European customers.

Banned from the US?

It would also mean that, at least for the electric share of its portfolio, the company would be banned from the US, where Chinese-linked brands, like Polestar, are denied sales and imports for using foreign-hostile-entity software and hardware. However, the days when American customers represented 40% of Maserati’s annual production are long gone. It has dwindled to half that share.

Maserati is scheduled to unveil its long-term strategy at an investor day in Modena this December. Then it will also bring out more info on two new models, successors to the Levante SUV and the Ghibli/Quattroporte.

By then, the talks with Huawei and JAC will likely have either hardened into a signed deal or ended under unfavorable terms. But surviving as a label under Chinese technology will hit many Italians hard.