Maserati is ceasing its engine supply from former sister brand Ferrari once its current supply contract expires.
Since 2002, the supercar manufacturer has built powertrains at its Maranello factory for the premium car firm from down the road in Modena – arguably one of the strongest selling points of Maserati cars – but that agreement is now set to come to a close.
The news was disclosed during Ferrari’s Q1 earnings call last week, with Ferrari chief executive Louis Camilleri saying: “Maserati has announced that at the end of that contract they will not renew it.
“So, eventually, we will no longer supply engines to Maserati, which actually from our perspective is actually a good thing, both from a margin perspective but also the fact that we can transfer a lot of the labour that’s been focused on the engines to the car side of the business.”
No end date has been officially confirmed for the end of the partnership, though reports suggest it will come to a conclusion in 2020 or 2021. Ferrari also has no plans to supply engines to any other manufacturers.
As a result of the move, Maserati will either have to develop its own engines going forward or source them from another firm — possibly within the Fiat Chrysler Association (FCA) umbrella. Ferrari had previously been a part of FCA, though it was spun off at the start of 2016.
It has been reported that Maserati will be turning to BMW for autonomous driving technology, so maybe there could also be a potential deal for engines from Munich to find their way to Modena.
