There may be a Maserati showroom opening up near you soon, especially if you live in the middle parts of the States.
Maserati’s chief Harald Wester says he wants to add an additional 20 dealerships in the U.S. this year, boosting the current total by 20 percent, he said to Automotive News at the Paris Motor Show. That’s a significant boost from the 79 U.S. dealers Maserati ended 2013 with.
Wester said he’s looking at spots in the middle of the U.S. that don’t have representation from Maserati. Maserati’s dealerships are currently heavily concentrated on the coasts in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Florida and the East Coast – with places such as Chicago, Dallas and Houston also represented.
Globally, Maserati has already added about 100 dealers since the end of 2012, and plans call for the total to reach somewhere around 450 dealers by the end of 2015. That may not sound terribly plentiful for most brands – BMW has almost as many in the U.S. alone – but it’s a big showing for what was a boutique brand not too long ago.
The growth is due in no small part to the brand’s doubling in sales through September 2014, largely because of the smaller Ghibli sedan. No word was given on how Maserati plans to boost its dealer count, but some dealers could be lured in by also adopting the Alfa Romeo and Fiat brands in the U.S.
Now the question is whether Maserati can sustain the growth after products such as the Levante SUV and Alfieri sports car launch in the next few years.
By Zac Estrada