Sergio Marchionne, wearer of many hats, appears poised to don yet another cappello.
Following the departure of former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who high-tailed it in 2014 due to clashes with Marchionne over company strategy, Bloomberg is reporting that current Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa is planning to retire after the nomination of a new board of directors, expected sometime this week.
Felisa does plan to stay as a board member, but this change will leave the role of CEO vacant … and we all know how much Sergio loves to be the Big Boss of Things.
It’s not unusual for car industry executives to hold multiple roles: Carlos Ghosn is CEO of both Renault and Nissan, with Daimler AG’s CEO Dieter Zetsche (aka “Dr. Z”) leading that company’s Mercedes-Benz division.
Marchionne, however, has usurped them all in terms of sheer numbers of titles on his business card. In addition to leading FCA and being chairman of Ferrari, he is (among other things) the chairman of a Swiss product-testing company, chairman of the truck group spun off from Fiat in 2011, and an independent director of Philip Morris International. Why not add temporary CEO of Ferrari to that list? Perhaps he’ll get a bulk discount on black sweaters.
Since the company’s IPO in October, Ferrari shares have dropped by about 25%. Given the generally held reason for di Montezemolo’s departure — clashes with Marchionne over plans to expand the Ferrari brand in ways he felt did not fit with Ferrari tradition — let’s hope plans aren’t afoot to goose market share by creating a Ferrari crossover or some other cash-cow abomination.
Rumours do abound of Ferrari planning a second “entry-level” GT car in addition to the California T. This is not a wholly offensive notion. After all, there is a vast gulf in the price of admission between the raucous/oddly-doorhandled 488GTB and the droptop California T.
Amedeo Felisa was in charge of product development at Alfa Romeo before joining Ferrari, reportedly becoming one of Montezemolo’s closest aides for over twenty years. Ferrari shareholders will meet in Amsterdam on April 15. Until then, no decisions have been finalized.
Rumour is that Marchionne is adding the Ferrari emblem to his sweater, so must be true..
By the way who are you, Guy? Seems you editorialized several years ago, and are now doing rando news tidbits, pal.
Theeenks.
I grabbed a shovel and dug him up from his early grave.
Actually, long story short, Matt and I met years ago when we were both newbies at TTAC. We just so happened to live in the same rural town in Nova Scotia, completely by chance. We’ve been friends ever since. Now he’s back.
Thanks! I enjoy having bits of background info.
Good to know. Sounds like he had a key part of his Tesla Model 3 tax credit article debunked yesterday. If that is the case, hopefully he will research articles better.
Also I realize have no idea of the difference in the 458 and the 488. Trims?
Engines, mainly. The 458 has a normally-aspirated 4.5-liter V8 while the 488 has a twin-turbo, 3.9-liter V8.
Thx
“Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even has a watermark.”
I’d like to see an in depth article that examines what Marchionne is doing and if his plans make any sense in reality. Would the car industry really be “better” if there were only 2 or 3 manufacturers? Why blow up Ferrari right after all those years of huge growth and profits (I think?). I guess the IPO was a cash grab but to what end? Clearly he had some competence to get where he is but with every new story I hear about FCA it just seems like the man’s attention span grows shorter and shorter and more detached from reality.
“let’s hope plans aren’t afoot to goose market share by creating a Ferrari crossover”
Why? Porsche has the 4-door Panamera and the Cayenne – both hated by purists – which comprise over 40% of Porsche’s sales volume.
I think a Ferrari crossover or 4-door could be nice.
“I think a Ferrari crossover or 4-door could be nice.”
They went kind of halfway with the FF and its successor, the GTC4Lusso. Four seats, big trunk, reasonably practical for a Ferrari. Even has four-wheel-drive.
The 4WD system on the FF was utterly ridiculous in its complexity!
Isn’t it also limited to something ridiculous like a 10/90 torque split?
That sounds right. Then it switches to 100% at the rear at some certain speed, or if you shift into third – something like that. Not even The Stig could handle it in the snow when TG tested it.
FCA – zombie car company kept alive like Darth Vader, powered by Jeep and to a lesser extent RAM. Everything else is just sucking the goodness and life out of the corporation.
Jefferson North, Warren Truck, and Toledo Assembly have to make 75%+ of the profits for FCA globally.
Cherokee outta TNAP just got greenie-weenie points in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Ferrari is going to build a performance pickup. They are going to call it the Ferrari Utility or FU for short.
I’d rather have an LM002! Red please, gold badging.
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/lm5_center.jpg