If the deal comes off I wonder if the future will see a budget range of desmo L-twins with a different brand badge? c.f. Skoda/Seat from the VAG group??? Pure conjecture, but would VAG seek to maximise profit & hike the Ducati brand prices? Perhaps they have the money to extend the Ducati range of bikes to fill niches they don't currently occupy?
And amongst all the brands VAG own that are mentioned above, VAG also own a large percentage of Porsche and Porsche in turn own a large part of VAG. The owners are related to each other.
They'd be complete idiots to lose the Ducati branding! It's got huge cachet as a brand, especially with the non-motorcycling public - right up there with Harley Davidson. If Harley got bought out by Ford, do you think you'd see Ford bikes? No way. Audi MAY start a spin-off branding though for market areas that Ducati currently don't cover. A cool Ducati 125 learner bike (a la KTM Duke) might sell well with Ducati branding but a Ducati moped would be laughed at hysterically so they may come up with something new for that.
Article claiming the deal may be finalised next week: Audi may announce Ducati buy next week: sources | Reuters
Have a drive past your local Aston Martin dealer and see the ridiculous city car on a pedestal outside. The Cygnet got all the way through to production, guess the brand guys took a few years off on that one. Aston Martin Cygnet (2011) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online So a Ducati moped, don't write anything off.
Aston have the Cygnet in their line-up because of EU BS rules on emissions - no other reason. They needed to bring overall fuel consumption and emissions within scope.
Whoever buys Ducati, they'd be complete idiots if they did away with the brand... The Ducati brand is one of the best known brands in the world, even among the non-motorcycling community.
Can't see the Ducati brand disappearing, it's far too much of an attraction in its own right & with too much history to lose. VAG have kept the Lamborghini brand name so I would expect them to do likewise with Ducati. Nothing to stop them using Ducati technology in other areas of their business, it probably makes sense to share the best of technologies across the group. Wonder if they are likely to use Ducati technology in bikes bearing other brand names? c.f. BMW, Husqvarna & Rotax.
could also be a way of losing revenue, like GM did with Saab. Unless the new generation motors in the Panigale are very clean, Ducatis aren't great with emissions, so it can't be to reduce the average CO2 across the range(s).
Conflicting reports on the price though, Sold! To the man in the Audi T-shirt - Motorcycle news: Industry - Visordown Steve Just noticed this report gives price in Euros.
Article Source: http://ducatiforum.co.uk/cms/433-audi-to-pay-860-million-euros-for-ducati/ (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s Audi unit has agreed to buy thoroughbred Italian motorcycle maker Ducati for about £708 Million including debt, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The deal allows VW chairman Ferdinand Piech, who has long coveted Ducati and himself owns one of their superbikes, to make up for a missed opportunity nearly 30 years ago to buy the maker of the fire-engine red 1199 Panigale. One source said Ducati’s debt was well below 200 million euros in an acquisition analysts said lacked obvious benefits for premium carmaker Audi and did little but polish Piech’s reputation as a collector of rare and exotic brands. “The Ducati purchase is driven by VW’s passion for nameplates rather than industrial or financial logic,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, analyst at London-based Credit Suisse. “It’s an unnecessary sideshow to VW’s main challenges of integrating sports-car maker Porsche and merging truck operations at MAN and Scania.”
