Stellantis is discussing a potentially far-reaching industrial partnership with Chinese technology group Huawei and automaker JAC Group involving its struggling Maserati luxury brand, opening another front in Chief Executive Antonio Filosa’s effort to restructure the global automaker through outside alliances. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Stellantis was in talks with Huawei and JAC about long-term industrial cooperation for Maserati. Stellantis acknowledged that it routinely speaks with industry companies around the world but stopped short of confirming the structure, timing or scope of any prospective agreement. Huawei and JAC did not immediately comment to Reuters.

The discussions matter because Maserati has become one of the most visible challenges within Stellantis’ portfolio. The century-old Italian marque occupies a potentially valuable position in the luxury market, but its recent commercial performance has left it operating at volumes far below those of major global premium competitors. Stellantis reported that Maserati shipments fell to 7,900 vehicles in 2025 from 11,300 in 2024, a decline of 30%. Net revenue dropped by the same percentage to €726 million from €1.04 billion. Maserati recorded an adjusted operating loss of €198 million, compared with a €260 million loss a year earlier, while its adjusted operating margin deteriorated to negative 27.3% from negative 25%.

Against that backdrop, a partnership could provide Stellantis with an alternative to developing every element of Maserati’s next generation of vehicles internally. Milano Finanza, which first reported the discussions, said the talks were at an advanced stage and centered on possible use of Huawei’s Harmony Intelligent Mobility technology. According to the report cited by Reuters, the parties were examining a jointly developed model that could enter production by the end of 2027. The contemplated arrangement could also involve a dual-brand strategy, with a related vehicle sold under JAC and Huawei’s Maextro marque in China and under Maserati branding in international markets. The companies have not publicly confirmed those proposed details.

Such a structure would combine three distinct sets of assets. Maserati would contribute a globally recognized Italian luxury name, an international dealer presence and design heritage. JAC would bring vehicle engineering and manufacturing experience as well as an established production relationship with Huawei. Huawei would contribute its increasingly influential automotive technology ecosystem, which spans cockpit software, assisted-driving systems, connectivity and vehicle architecture. The combination could allow Stellantis to reduce development time and spread investment across partners while preserving Maserati’s customer-facing identity outside China.

JAC and Huawei already have extensive experience working together at the top end of China’s passenger-car market. JAC says the companies signed a strategic cooperation agreement covering intelligent new-energy vehicles in December 2023 and subsequently developed the Maextro brand. Their Maextro S800 flagship was jointly created by JAC and Huawei, while a dedicated Maextro factory in Hefei was designed around digital development and intelligent manufacturing. Huawei said in its 2025 annual report that its Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, which includes Maextro and four other brands, delivered 589,100 new vehicles during 2025. The group has increasingly positioned HIMA as a platform through which Huawei supplies technology and consumer-facing capabilities while automotive partners retain manufacturing roles.

For Maserati, the attraction would go beyond access to software. A partnership could potentially give the brand a faster route to competitive electrical architectures, intelligent cockpits and advanced driver-assistance functions at a time when Chinese luxury vehicles have raised expectations around digital features. Premium European manufacturers face growing pressure to match that technology while controlling the enormous cost of developing low-volume vehicle platforms. Maserati’s small sales base makes the economics particularly difficult: even a technologically competitive vehicle can carry heavy unit costs if engineering spending is spread across only several thousand annual deliveries.

Stellantis has already signaled that partnerships will play a much larger role in solving that problem across its portfolio. In May, Filosa unveiled FaSTLAne 2030, a five-year strategy involving more than €60 billion of planned investment. One of the plan’s six central pillars is the use of partnerships to complement Stellantis’ own capabilities. The company said such alliances are intended to help it co-develop and co-fund products, enter additional markets, broaden technology choices, improve sourcing economics and increase factory utilization. Stellantis has also set a goal of reducing vehicle-development cycles to about 24 months from periods that can currently extend to roughly 40 months.

The company has already expanded that model with several other manufacturers. Its Leapmotor International venture gives Stellantis majority control of a business distributing the Chinese automaker’s vehicles outside China, while the companies have also discussed purchasing and European manufacturing cooperation. Stellantis has separately outlined deeper cooperation with longtime Chinese partner Dongfeng, including new Peugeot and Jeep products and plans for collaboration in distribution, engineering, sourcing and capacity sharing. Other partnerships in Filosa’s strategic plan involve Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and technology suppliers ranging from Qualcomm and Nvidia to Wayve and CATL.

Bringing Huawei and JAC into Maserati’s future would nevertheless be a more sensitive step because of the brand’s positioning. Maserati is not merely another Stellantis product line: its appeal depends heavily on Italian provenance, performance engineering and the perception of exclusivity. Any arrangement would therefore have to reconcile the financial benefits of shared technology and industrial scale with the need to prevent the Maserati badge from becoming indistinguishable from a platform sold under another brand. How much of a jointly developed vehicle would be differentiated in design, chassis tuning, software, powertrain calibration and interior execution would be central to the commercial outcome.

The prospective cooperation would also have implications for manufacturing in Italy. Filosa has said additional partnerships involving Maserati could raise production at Stellantis facilities in Cassino and Modena, where the brand’s cars are built. Low utilization has become a major strategic concern across the European automotive industry as manufacturers confront weak demand in some segments, rising competition and the cost of maintaining large factory networks. Stellantis’ broader plan targets an increase in European capacity utilization from about 60% to 80% by 2030, alongside a reduction of more than 800,000 units of capacity through plant repurposing and other measures.

That manufacturing dimension could make a Maserati partnership politically significant in Italy. Stellantis has repeatedly faced scrutiny over Italian vehicle production, employment and investment, and the company has emphasized that cooperation with outside manufacturers can be used to fill factories rather than simply move production abroad. A Maserati arrangement involving Chinese partners would therefore be judged partly on whether it generates additional work for Modena and Cassino and preserves high-value engineering and manufacturing functions in Italy. Filosa has explicitly linked a prospective Maserati deal to improved production rates at those plants.

Stellantis has not indicated that the Huawei-JAC discussions replace its own product plans for Maserati. Under FaSTLAne 2030, the automaker said it intends to strengthen Maserati as a “pure luxury” brand and add two new E-segment vehicles. The company plans to present a detailed roadmap for the marque in Modena in December 2026. Maserati has meanwhile continued updating its existing portfolio, including the GranTurismo, GranCabrio and Grecale, with a new generation of the Grecale sport-utility vehicle planned for 2027. That timetable means any partnership agreed in the coming months could become closely intertwined with the brand’s next formal product strategy.

The central financial challenge is to create enough volume and pricing power to turn Maserati into a sustainable contributor without undermining its exclusivity. The 2025 results demonstrate the scale of that task. Although the adjusted operating loss narrowed by €62 million from the previous year, the drop in revenue and shipments left the brand with a deeply negative margin. Stellantis attributed Maserati’s results partly to lower volumes, reduced pricing in North America, a smaller product portfolio, U.S. tariffs and weaker appetite for luxury vehicles in China. Those pressures make a capital-light or shared-development strategy particularly attractive compared with funding a stand-alone technology stack for a brand selling fewer than 10,000 vehicles a year.

China is another important consideration. The country has become one of the world’s most technologically competitive premium-vehicle markets, with domestic electric and hybrid brands gaining share through rapid model cycles, sophisticated software and aggressive feature sets. Partnering with JAC and Huawei could give Maserati a more locally competitive proposition while potentially allowing Stellantis to use the same industrial investment across China and export markets. The reported dual-brand structure would be an unusual way of addressing that challenge: Maextro could carry the product in China, where Huawei’s ecosystem has strong consumer recognition, while Maserati could provide the global luxury identity elsewhere.

The concept is not without risk. A shared vehicle architecture can produce large savings in engineering and procurement, but customers in the luxury market often pay premiums for perceived uniqueness. If the relationship between a Maserati model and a Maextro counterpart were too obvious, Stellantis could face questions about differentiation and pricing. There would also be strategic questions over software control, ownership of customer data, intellectual property, supplier dependence and the ability to update vehicles over long product cycles. Those issues are increasingly important as automotive value shifts from mechanical components toward computing platforms, assisted-driving functions and digital services.

Geopolitics could add another layer of complexity. Huawei faces restrictions in the United States and remains a politically sensitive technology supplier in several Western markets. Maserati sells internationally, meaning Stellantis would have to consider whether particular Huawei-origin systems could complicate homologation, cybersecurity compliance, procurement or commercialization in certain jurisdictions. Reuters’ report did not specify which Huawei technologies would be used, in which markets they would appear, or whether different technical configurations could be developed for different regions. Those details would be crucial before the commercial significance of any agreement could be fully assessed.

For JAC and Huawei, cooperation with Maserati could offer a different type of strategic benefit. Their Maextro partnership has demonstrated an ambition to compete in China’s highest-priced vehicle segments. Association with an established Italian luxury marque could provide additional international engineering experience and potentially a route into markets where newly created Chinese premium brands still have limited distribution. JAC has described Maextro as a central element of its transition toward intelligent new-energy vehicles and has continued expanding its cooperation with Huawei in vehicle technology, enterprise digitalization and manufacturing.

The potential transaction therefore reflects a wider change in the global automotive industry. Partnerships that once focused largely on engines, factories or geographic joint ventures are increasingly extending into software, computing systems, batteries and entire vehicle platforms. At the same time, established Western groups are looking for ways to tap the speed and cost structure of Chinese electric-vehicle development without surrendering their brands. Stellantis has been among the most aggressive proponents of that approach, and Filosa’s strategic plan makes clear that management views outside cooperation as a structural tool rather than a temporary response to weak demand.

Still, the Maserati discussions remain negotiations rather than an announced transaction. Stellantis has confirmed only that it routinely engages with industry players and has not disclosed commercial terms, investment commitments, ownership arrangements or a production decision. The reported objective of a first jointly developed vehicle by the end of 2027 would also require a relatively fast timetable for an automotive program, reinforcing the importance of using technology and manufacturing assets that Huawei and JAC already have in place. Until definitive agreements are signed, the scope could change materially or the talks could end without a deal.

The next major milestone is likely to be Maserati’s strategy presentation in December. Investors, suppliers and Italian policymakers will be looking for evidence that Stellantis has found a credible route to restore the brand’s volumes while protecting its luxury positioning and controlling capital expenditure. If the Huawei-JAC discussions result in a formal partnership, the agreement could become one of the clearest examples yet of Filosa’s strategy of combining Stellantis brands and factories with external technology and engineering ecosystems. If no agreement emerges, Maserati will still face the same underlying problem: finding a commercially sustainable way to fund new luxury vehicles at a scale far below the group’s mass-market businesses.