Chinese Consumers Rush to Buy Maserati SUVs Priced at Just USD50,940(Yicai) Dec. 16 -- Many Chinese consumers have acted quickly to purchase new Maserati autos after the Italian luxury carmaker lowered the price of its Grecale sports utility vehicles, with that of the pure electric edition reaching as low as CNY358,800 (USD50,940).
"On the first day of the price reduction, a queue had already formed at the entrance before we even opened at 8:30 a.m.," Xu Xin, a manager of a major Maserati dealership in Shanghai, told Yicai. "Customers kept us busy until 9 p.m., with all the low-specification fuel-powered Grecale models in the city snapped up in two days."
Maserati has made several big price cuts in China during the second half of this year. The price of the fuel-powered Grecale has dropped to as low as CNY388,800 from a guide price of CNY650,800, while that of the electric Grecale Folgore has plunged to CNY358,800 from CNY898,800.
"Some customers who hesitated on their first visit found that the car they wanted was gone when they returned the next day," Xu noted, adding that all low-spec fuel and electric Grecale models have been sold out nationwide.
A source close to Maserati told Yicai that the rare and significant price cuts are due to a batch of imported cars arriving in China a year and a half late because of the Covid-19 pandemic, causing their sales schedule to overlap with the launch of new models.
"We lose money on every one of these cars we sell, but we had no choice but to offer big discounts," the source noted. "The new models have already arrived at the ports, and prices will return to normal."
All of the just over 100 low-spec Grecale models discounted to CNY388,800 were sold out within a single weekend, a Maserati dealership in Beijing said to Yicai. The price of the remaining such cars in the city is around CNY450,000, the person noted.
Maserati's China sales tumbled to 1,228 units last year from 14,400 units in 2017, which was its largest single market worldwide at the time. For the first nine months of this year, the figure stood at 1,023 units.
Editor: Martin Kadiev
