BUILD great products, power a nation, global domination. That’s the way an automotive superpower like Volkswagen really wants to see things play out.
While Volkswagen is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful automotive companies on the planet, the German giant isn’t having it all its own way.
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Compared to Toyota, worth $187 billion according to Reuters, VW is small fry, worth around $80 billion. But, VW has more brands under its sizeable umbrella, more staff, and higher overheads.
Volkswagen Chief Executive, Herbert Diess is the man in charge of changing that. He’s tasked with helping the German brand to ‘reinvent itself’ for the modern age.
That reinvention will most likely come in the form of a move into new areas, a focus on clean energy, and away from more conventional petrol-powered vehicles.
And that will mean one of two things for a firm like Ducati. The first option is that the Italian motorcycle brand will also have to go through something of a metamorphosis. Blooming out of the petrol age and into a new, electrically powered, green energy dawn. But herein lies the problem.
Ducati is a heritage brand, with deep roots in the petrol-powered world. Ducati stands for noise, excitement, passion, and theatre. Not currently words associated with the vehicles we get from the new world order of alternative fuels.
Speaking Reuters, Diess remained shtum about Ducati specifically, although he did talk about the group as a whole moving into the new era.
“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,”
“Brands must be measured against new requirements. By electrification, by reach, by digitalisation, and connectivity of the vehicle. There is new room for manoeuvre and every brand must find its new place,” he said.
The other option for VW is they could off-load Ducati and the other high-performance brand they own, Lamborghini. Reuters also reports that two, unnamed executives confirmed that the brands may have to look at tech partnerships, and up to and including restructuring or sale.
