A Change for the Italian Company

Right now, Ducati is owned by the VW Group. There have been rumors before about the brand being sold, and in November of this year, the group’s board will meet to discuss Ducati’s fate. 

There’s been a lot of discussion about VW Group’s assets. Lamborghini may go public, Bugatti could be sold to Rimac, and the group might consider selling off some of its brands to focus its efforts.

In a Reuter’s article, Herbert Deiss, VW Group’s chief executive, said the following:

“We are constantly looking at our brand portfolio, this is particularly true during the phase of fundamental change in our industry. In view of the market disruption, we must focus and ask ourselves what the transformation means for the individual parts of the group.”

The article notes that VW want’s to get away from piston-engined vehicles and instead work more on electric vehicles. Ducati could fit into that, but at the moment VW seems to be focused on cars, not on motorcycles. 

The real question is: does VW Group want to keep Ducati around, and if so, for how long? A secondary question is who will buy Ducati once it goes up for sale. KTM was rumored to be interested, but there’s surely other companies out there from India and China that would love to have the Ducati brand to work with.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Italian marque in the future. I’m hoping it stays European and possibly even becomes more Italian-based, but we live in a globalized world these days, and I don’t have high hopes that will happen.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com