Volkswagen AG is considering offloading motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, as part of a sweeping overhaul of the German automaker’s sprawling portfolio.
The Italian brand is among the 600 out of Volkswagen’s 2,000 businesses being reviewed, Audi Chief Executive Officer Gernot Döllner said in an interview. The storied maker of high-performance bikes is part of VW’s Audi group.
“Within the Volkswagen Group, we are committed to a disciplined, responsible portfolio management,” Döllner said. “It’s part of the evaluation process that we’ll also talk about Ducati, but nothing has been decided.”
The Bologna-based company, known for making “superbikes” such as the Panigale, may be worth roughly €1.25 billion ($1.5 billion) based on peers’ valuations, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean.
Volkswagen is trying to slim down in an effort to make Europe’s biggest carmaker more competitive. The supervisory board last week approved a restructuring package that calls for shrinking its portfolio of businesses and holdings by roughly a third. In June, the group agreed to sell 51 per cent of its Everllence ship-engine unit that’s expected to generate about €7.4 billion.
Audi acquired Ducati in 2012. The company explored selling the 100-year-old manufacturer in 2017 before abandoning the process amid opposition from German labor representatives. Ducati has since strengthened its position as one of motorcycle racing’s dominant names, winning six consecutive MotoGP constructors’ championships since 2020.
Its success has helped give the marque something of the Ferrari aura in the motorcycle world, with its fiercely loyal followers known as “Ducatisti.”
Any sale would carry particular symbolism for Volkswagen’s controlling Porsche-Piëch clan: late patriarch Ferdinand Piëch, a motorcycle enthusiast, personally championed the 2012 acquisition and later served on Ducati’s board. Still, its typical operating margin is below the 9 per cent target Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume wants the broader group to achieve by 2030.
Ducati sells around 50,000 units a year, and generated €925 million of revenue last year and a €52 million operating profit.
Separately, Döllner said Audi is still studying options to manufacture vehicles in the US, including using capacity at an existing Volkswagen factory or at Scout Motors’ new plant. Audi currently has no vehicle production in the country, leaving it more exposed to tariffs than BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
Any move would form part of a broader reshaping of Volkswagen’s production network. Audi’s Q4 e-tron is made in Zwickau, Germany, while the Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs are built in Bratislava, Slovakia. Q3 production is split between Győr, Hungary and Ingolstadt.
Döllner declined to comment on potential future uses for Audi’s Neckarsulm plant after Volkswagen announced a solution for Osnabrück on Monday, saying the site — which lacks secure follow-on production into the next decade — must first work through further efficiency measures.
“We have to think for the SUVs to produce at least some of them in the US,” Döllner said. “But there have been no decisions taken.”