A report came a few days ago The Financial Times indicated that Volkswagen executives were being advised by its own financial advisers as well as outside advisers to sell arms of the brand’s worldwide business, including motorcycle maker Ducati.
This report comes after CEO Oliver Bloom said that he intends to lay off more than 100,000 employees out of the company’s workforce of more than 600,000 people. Additionally, VW recently sold the brand’s marine engine manufacturer BugattiBoth of these were seen as successful transactions for the troubled company.
However, at the time, other than Blume’s comments, no one from Volkswagen’s leadership commented. The Financial Times‘Report one way or the other. ride separately Volkswagen was also contacted for comment, and the automaker replied with a prepared statement. And although you might think the brand would deny the contents of the original report, the response actually does nothing to stop us from believing in its authenticity.
To keep an eye.
According to a Volkswagen AG spokesperson;
Please understand that we do not comment on internal, confidential documents. The underlying matters will be discussed and approved in the respective committees. We will not end this process in advance.
It is true that the entire automotive industry and the Volkswagen Group is undergoing profound change. The Executive Board has repeatedly said that our current business model no longer works for all brands: developing cars in Germany, producing them in Europe and exporting them to the world.
The world has changed fundamentally in recent years. Over the past twelve months, growth has accelerated. New tariffs, tougher competition and stagnant – in some cases declining – markets are currently costing the company up to billions of euros per year. To remain successful in these circumstances, we have to evolve. The entire group will have to become much more competitive. This requires greater focus on costs and investment as well as strict discipline. Only in this way can we protect and strengthen our position as one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers and continue to finance our future from our own means.
The entire group, including the brand and subsidiaries, will have to be deeply transformed. To this end, the Executive Board has worked intensively in recent months on a future plan for the restructuring of the Company. The goal is to make the entire company more efficient and streamlined and continuously capture technological synergy potential. In particular, this applies to decision-making processes and structures – particularly in the development and integration of new technologies as well as into model portfolios for our clients.
In the next phase, this comprehensive change is to be implemented after the involvement of the Supervisory Board.
Volkswagen did not deny in that statement that it was looking for buyers for Ducati. This puts a lot of onus on each brand, which includes Ducati, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, Skoda, Seat, VW and others, to succeed and remain within the VW ecosystem, as each is tasked with finding “a greater focus on costs and investment, as well as strict discipline.”
Porsche is already getting the breakthrough it needs, as the company recently said it was going to focus on Low on volume and high on expensive sports and supercars. This comes from poor sales worldwide, failed EV launches and enthusiasm, economic issues like the aforementioned tariffs, taxes and general current bad-poor economics, and an aging customer base. It seems that Porsche is having many of the same problems as Harley-Davidson recently.
However, what impact this will have on Ducati is yet to be seen. Based on this statement, however, it will affect Ducati, as a Volkswagen spokesperson’s statement declared that “the entire group will have to become significantly more competitive.” The question then becomes, “Who will buy Ducati?” If the brand can’t rein in its spending and increase its competitiveness to the satisfaction of Volkswagen’s top executives?
Ducati saw a slight decline in sales and revenues in 2025, as did the rest of the industry. But the brand name itself is known throughout the world. It has brand cachet that rivals most, competes (and wins) in MotoGP, and is still a big player in the motorcycle world. The price of the Ducati won’t be cheap.
However, for now, Ducati is still within Volkswagen and still has some of the best motorcycles. So we will have to wait and see what happens to the famous motorcycle manufacturer Borgo Panigale.
