Could BYD Buy Maserati?
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There’s a little murmuring going on that BYD could buy Maserati. Hmm….
This stems from BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li recently saying to reporters that brands like Maserati are “very interesting” to the company. Hmm….
In case you don’t follow BYD closely, there are two things here that stand out to me here. One is that Stella Li is an absolute giant in the company. Executive Vice President may not sound like the biggest title, but she is essentially the face and leadership of BYD outside of China and is seemingly everywhere all the time. She’s the one leading BYD into new markets, talking about any and all topics as needed, and appears to make a lot of big decisions at the company. The second thing is that she’s very careful about what she says. She doesn’t throw wild ideas around or shoot from the hip like a certain Tesla CEO. She’s measured, careful, and quite deliberate in what she says. So, it seems unlikely that she’d mention Maserati in this way and not have at least thought seriously about taking over the brand.
There are a few reasons BYD might want to buy Maserati. One is that it’s a well known European brand that could help BYD grow its numbers in Europe much more easily than by trying to break into this established, loyal, manufacturer-heavy auto market. Beyond Europe, Maserati is also a well known premium brand that is famous around the world. Fill its cars with advanced, cost-competitive BYD tech and the brand could see a surge in sales in many markets. Then there’s the matter of tariffs on Chinese produced electric vehicles. If BYD could quickly shift to producing a bunch of cars in Europe through the Maserati brand, that could make it much more competitive in Europe.
We’ve also already seen the example of a notable European auto brand getting bought by a Chinese automotive giant — Volvo Cars becoming part of Geely — and it has gone fine.
There’s one big issue, though. Apparently, Maserati COO Santo Ficili recently said that Maserati is “not for sale.”
BYD may not be buying Maserati right now, but the idea does seem like a compelling one, and perhaps Stella Li and her crew will make that purchase down the road when the time is right. We’ll see how things go.
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