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Aug. 20, 2025 | Maserati’s Andrea Soriani; suppliers expect tough six months

Automotive News Daily Drive Aug 20, 2025 21 min

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About this episode

Suppliers in the automotive industry are bracing for a challenging six months, with concerns about cash flow and investment decisions amid ongoing uncertainties. Honda is collaborating with Helm AI for self-driving technology, while Hertz teams up with Amazon to sell used vehicles online. Maserati North America's Andrea Soriani discusses the brand's strategy to balance internal combustion and electric vehicles, emphasizing the importance of adapting to market demands and strengthening dealer relationships. The conversation highlights the complexities of navigating tariffs and competition in the luxury market.

Topics: supplier concerns self-driving technology used vehicle sales maserati strategy electric vehicles dealer relationships tariff impacts luxury market trends

Maserati North America chief Andrea Soriani talks about challenges and opportunities for the brand in an uncertain trade environment. Suppliers are more pessimistic about their companies’ overall performance than automakers and dealers. Plus, Honda taps a Silicon Valley startup for self-driving software.

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Wednesday, August 20th, 2025. I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, suppliers expect a tough six months ahead.

Honda taps a Silicon Valley startup for self-driving software,

and Hertz partners with Amazon Autos to sell used vehicles online. Plus, the head of Maserati

North America, Andrea Soriani, talks about challenges and opportunities for the brand

in an uncertain trade environment.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

Suppliers are more pessimistic about their companies' overall performance than automakers

and dealers. Supplier professionals also have lower expectations about how their companies

will perform and how the auto sector will fare over the next six months.

That's according to Automotive News' first-ever Auto Industry Confidence Index.

About 47% of suppliers said they would rate their companies' current performance as

excellent or good, compared with 56% of dealers and 61% of automakers.

Honda has signed a multi-year agreement to work with a U.S. AI startup to develop self-driving

technology. The Japanese automaker and California-based Helm AI will collaborate on

producing advanced driver assistance systems for Honda's mass-market vehicles by 2027.

They did not give a value or duration of the contract in their statement.

And Hertz Global Holdings says its car sales unit will partner with Amazon to

sell used vehicles. The collaboration builds on Amazon Auto's recent expansion into used vehicle

sales. Hertz and Amazon will start offering their service within 75 miles of Dallas,

Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle. They plan to expand to Hertz Car Sales 45 locations across the U.S.

And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all those stories at

autonews.com. Joining me now to talk about how parts makers are feeling in this time of uncertainty

is our own John Irwin, who covers the automotive supply chain for us at Automotive News.

John, welcome back to Daily Drive. Thanks for having me back.

So we recently talked about how suppliers seem to be weathering the tariff storm well so far,

most had higher than expected earnings results in the second quarter.

Why are they more concerned than automakers and dealers?

Yeah, it's interesting because suppliers, like you said, have really done a little bit better,

I think, overall than maybe they were anticipating a few months ago. But there are a few issues that

kind of stand out moving forward for them, maybe even a little bit more than automakers

and dealers. First of all, you kind of have to zoom out a little bit and look at the broader

context of the last several years. Suppliers, really during COVID and then through the

semiconductor shortages, inflation, everything else, their bottom lines are really impacted

and affected maybe to a greater degree than automakers and dealers were. Supplier margins

really shrunk during that time. So they're coming off of a period like that where already they were

dealing with balance sheets that weren't quite where they wanted. And now when we look at tariffs,

while yes, they've been relatively successful in pushing tariff costs from themselves up the

supply chain all the way to automakers, the devil's always in the details. And what

I mean by that is that for a lot of suppliers, depending on how the contracts are written

and who's actually doing the importing and exporting, a lot of them are still having to pay

the tariff up front when they move the part across the border. And because of that,

there might be some cash flow issues, even if they have a deal with their automaker or their

customer to get that money back eventually, that might not happen for weeks or months.

And so that kind of leaves them in a state where there might be some cash flow worries

and that sort of thing. And then on top of that, there's electrification and a lot

of the investments that they've made in that space. Maybe a few years ago,

suppliers putting a lot of money to help support a lot of new EV programs that

automakers were looking for. A lot of those, the return on investment hasn't quite been there

for a lot of these programs, just sales haven't quite been where a lot of automakers were

thinking. And because of that, suppliers are kind of left with a lot of stranded capital

moving forward. That's something that they're really worried about, whether that's

making investments in the US because automakers are looking to get around tariffs

suppliers want to make sure that those commitments are for the long haul and that's

something that a few years from now, if tariffs are scaled back that automakers might move back from

or what have you, or if all of a sudden, a few years from now, EV demand really takes off and

they just shipped it back to making investments in ICE vehicles. They don't want to be left

holding the bag. So there's a lot going on that makes suppliers maybe a little bit more

pessimistic, I guess, relative to automakers and dealers when it comes to

their outlook over the next several months. And what kinds of anecdotal stories did you hear

from sources that you spoke with for this story? Yeah, there were a lot of interesting things that

suppliers who I reached out to had to say, one executive who I spoke with, he runs a

large tier one supplier and he basically was saying, things have been frozen for the

last several months. Their customers aren't making the major investment decisions that

maybe they would have otherwise, at least not to the same extent. And so that's left

everyone else waiting for some sort of long-term clarity on trade, EV plans, everything else.

So because of that, everyone's just stuck sitting around and that has long-term effects.

This executive basically said this is something that has caused some more existential dread

essentially for his company and for the auto industry in general, then even COVID,

the 0809 bankruptcies and the recession. And that's because if you're just kind of sitting

around waiting, not making the investments, you're not necessarily winning new business

first of all in the short term. And then long-term, there's worry about, if everyone's just kind of

not making those investments in advanced technologies, maybe to the same degree because

you're not sure where things are going to end up, that you might fall behind

globally competitively, whether it's with Chinese automakers or other competitors globally.

So that was something that I heard from a few suppliers that you're saying,

even if we're kind of weathering this short term, there are a lot of long-term concerns about where

the auto industry, especially in North America is going to end up and there's a kind of a wide

range of potential scenarios and how things could play out. But a lot of them are worried

about the more pessimistic side of things where maybe things, if you're just sitting

around for 12, 18 months, not being able to make decisions, you really fall behind.

And that gap, which already might be there when it comes to your technology and vis-à-vis

China, that might be hard to make up that gap moving forward. So that's a big concern. At the

same time, a lot of companies are still keeping their heads down, just trying to get through day

to day. And like we've talked about before, they've done a decent job of at least doing that.

So it's interesting times for the supply chain as always.

Perfect. John, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks so much.

You can find all of our coverage of the Auto Industry Confidence Index at AutoNews.com.

Coming up, Maserati North America General Manager Andrea Soriani joins the show.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to daily drive. I'm Kellan Walker.

Of Stellantis's 14 brands, Maserati might have the most uncertain future here in North

America. In June Reuters reported that the automaker was considering a sale of its luxury brand.

Stellantis responded, quote, respectfully Maserati is not for sale. So where does that

leave the brand? Our own Kali Shofner caught up with Maserati North America Chief Andrea Soriani

at Monterey Car Week in California. Here's their conversation.

What are your powertrain plans moving forward?

So Maserati made it clear that we will continue producing ICE internal combustion engines as

long as there is demand, which we think there is going to be demand for a long time.

But for the same token, all of our range except for the MC Pura and the G2 Stradale

is available with the Fogore version. Fogore is our EV version. So the client is looking for an

electric vehicle. We can definitely deliver the electric version, but we will continue offering

petrol engine cars for the foreseeable future. We are not going on electric or we are not going

all petrol. The same token. Okay. So a balance there.

Okay. And we are actually not even forcing dealers right now or clients

to a certain quota of electric vehicles. We will fill the natural demands of electric vehicles.

Okay. And so the initial plan it sounds like was to go all electric by 2028,

but that is now no longer. That's very soon. So that's, that's correct. You know,

I think a lot of companies went on, you know, on the, on electric plans for the future,

depending on, on market rules, regulation. But I think at the end the market is spoken.

And we need to make sure that we have the right products for, for the clients. And again,

you see a mix of demand. So we will keep producing both versions. And actually the

best part is that if you have the Greccale or a Gran Turismo Gran Cabrio, the electric version

looks exactly like the internal combustion engine. So you don't have to compromise on design or to

choose a different design because you can have the, the power train you like. This is a thing

very important. Right. Absolutely. And kind of touching on that. What is your outlook for the

US market? Oh, that's complicated. I think we live in a, in a time of high uncertainty.

We got different news every, every days on global economy. It's a very tough political

environment globally. There are a lot of disruption in the supply chain. Still,

there is some uncertainty around the tariffs. So it's not easy to, to predict the future

right now. What we'll try to do is to be nimble, is to be ready to, to adjust. Because I think the

name of the game now is to manage the uncertainty. Listen, if you know what is happening, you can

plan accordingly. With uncertainty, you need to be nimble and fast to react to the changes

protecting the value of the brand and your, and your consumers. Absolutely. What are some

of the things that you're working on in the US market that you can build upon? Well,

first of all, it's our dealer body. It is, uh, uh, strengthening the relationship with our dealer

body, making sure that we support them in the right way. And this is very important because

they are my first clients. Second, we are working on the tens of marketing and getting more

experiential activities, more activations. We are, we just done a very successful

event at Cota where we had our entire range. We brought in the extreme. We will be in Montremblain

soon. We'll be in Toronto. We will be down in Miami because at the end it's all about driving.

I know that sounds cliche. So our goal is, along with our dealers, to have more and more people

experiencing majority. And then in the, in the mid-term with, with our HQ, we are working

on a new range of products. And, uh, we hope to have some exciting news very soon. Okay. That's

good to know. And touching on the dealers, how many US dealerships do you have now?

US, North America is one or three. Okay. If you want US precisely, get JRD.

Okay. CBD. I can do it. No, because we just made a couple of changes of open Indian closing.

So I want to make sure I give you the most accurate number. Okay. I appreciate that.

I can give you the accurate number because we closed a couple of dealers in minor markets,

but you just opened another one. Okay. And I want to make sure that, you know,

dealers can be very sensitive and I want to get anybody upset. Absolutely. Do you want

more stores being judging by the North American number? Is that number just right?

I think we have 91 in the US, 12 in Canada. Okay. 91 in the US, 12 in Canada. Okay. So

knowing that then, is that the right number from Ozurati? We don't have a preset number.

Okay. As long as we have a dealer in all the right markets and pretty much, it's not that we are

saying, oh, we must have 100, 110 dealers. We must have all the right markets served in the right

way. And that's going to be the name of the game. Okay. Absolutely. Are there any trends

in the luxury market that you want capitalized on? There are a lot of trends in the luxury markets.

Due to motive industry, unfortunately, because of the nature of the business and the product,

sometimes takes time to adjust. Definitely, luxury is continuing the trend of going digital,

which was counterintuitive years ago. A lot of our clients, they begin the journey online.

The showroom experience driving the car is still fundamental. You know, luxury is about,

if you say, it's about the experience that Ozurati is all about emotions. So, you know,

Ozurati is a multi-sensory experience in the design, start with your eyes, then you touch

the leather, you have the smell of the leather, the sound of the engine. So this is something

that our clients appreciate is something that is coming, came a long way in luxury.

What we see is more and more customization. Doesn't mean going to extreme one-off,

but everybody likes something a little bit unique. And definitely, we have just re-launched our

40-series, the 40-series program, which is the customization program. Okay. So definitely,

this is what we are seeing now. Digital trend continuing, but still the importance of having

something unique, something you can experience, and still the connection between the client and the

product. So is when, you know, the emotions became very important and the really the connection

with your products. Okay. Absolutely. You mentioned uncertainty in the market,

tariffs play into that obviously. So how tariffs impacted your US sales strategy

and performance? And is there, are there any changes in your approach there?

Well, definitely tariffs are putting some, some stress on the entire supply chain and

in our bottom line. Right now we are waiting for, you know, there was an agreement that was

reached between Europe and the US. Nevertheless, we still don't have the executive details

on the implementation. Okay. And as you know, Europe is made by independent countries. So

we are waiting for the, let's say, one-on-one negotiations between the US and the States

for visibility. We play according to the news we get on the market. As I said before,

trying to be nimble, we hope on some, on some good news. Yes, absolutely. You and all the

other automakers. I think we are all pretty much together in this one. Yes. Yes, definitely.

And going back to the dealers, what kind of feedback are you getting from them,

especially in recent months, about the state of the business?

State of the business, all together they have a lot of pressure and there is a lot of competition.

So the uncertainty affects OEM, dealers, competition is, is fierce. All manufacturers

have wonderful products, but that's the reason why I said it's really important for me to work with

my dealers, trying to help them to reduce costs, to get the right information, training and coaching

about products, consumer journey and sales experience and delivering the right products

in a timely manner. So it's a whole combination. To me, dealers are my first clients and

they're to be partners. Without my dealers, I can't reach my clients, so my final clients.

So it's really important to have an open conversation and to be nice to each other.

Are there any products, new products coming to the US soon?

Come to see me soon. Okay, soon, soon, like that.

How has the Great Collie Reventions a little bit performed in the US and which variant is selling the most?

Right now is the, you're the model, right? I think it is the model that is selling the most.

It's our, I would like to call, most accessible model.

And it's still the lever chafoum, majority experience, internal design, performance,

versatility, space. So we are fairly satisfied with the performance and definitely it's our

best-selling model right now. Basically, it replaced the Levante in terms of best-selling model.

Oh, wow, okay. Because we just based out the Levante as you know.

That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to automotive news executive producer

Jake Nier as well as our own John Irwin for his reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on luxury brands, suppliers and everything happening in the

auto industry at AutoNews.com. Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Trisha Johnson,

head of design for EV Startup Slate. It absolutely had to be both really, really low cost and really,

really something people would want. Something people would feel truly proud of.

That's actually why I signed on as a designer because so often one or the other of those

would get left behind. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show

and the topics we covered today. Send us an email at DailyDrive at AutoNews.com

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