Exclusive: Volkswagen Doesn't Deny It's Looking To Sell Ducati In Official Statement

A few days ago, a report by The Financial Times indicated that Volkswagen's executives were being advised by its own financial advisors, as well as outside advisers, to sell off arms of the brand's worldwide business, including that of motorcycle maker Ducati.

The report comes on the heels of CEO Oliver Blume stating that he intended to lay off over 100,000 employees of the company's 600,000-plus-person workforce. Moreover, VW recently sold off the brand's marine engine manufacturer and Bugatti, both of which were seen as successful transactions for the beleaguered company.  

At the time, however, no one from Volkswagen's leadership, beyond Blume's comments, commented on The Financial Times' report one way or another. RideApart reached out to Volkswagen for a comment, too, and the automaker replied with a prepared statement. And though you'd likely think the brand would deny the content within the original report, the reply doesn't exactly do anything to dissuade us from believing its veracity.

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Per 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 pre-empt this process.

It is correct that the entire automotive industry and the Volkswagen Group are undergoing a profound transformation. The Executive Board has repeatedly stated that our current business model no longer works across all brands: developing cars in Germany, producing them in Europe and exporting them to the world.

The world has fundamentally changed in recent years. Over the past twelve months, developments have intensified. New tariffs, harder competition and stagnating – in some cases declining – markets are currently placing burdens on the company reaching tens of billions of euros per year. To remain successful under these conditions, we have to evolve. The entire Group has to become significantly more competitive. That requires a sharper focus as well as stricter discipline over costs and investment. Only in this way can we defend and consolidate our position as one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers and continue to finance our future by our own means.

The entire Group – including brands and subsidiaries – have to transform profoundly. To that end, the Executive Board has worked intensively over recent months on a future plan for the realignment of the company. The goal is to make the entire company more efficient and leaner and to capture technological synergy potential consistently. In particular, this applies to decision-making processes and structures – especially in the development and integration of new technologies as well as in the model portfolio for our customers.

In the next step, this comprehensive transformation is to be implemented following the Supervisory Board’s engagement.

Volkswagen doesn't deny it's looking for buyers for Ducati in that statement. It also puts a lot of the onus of success and staying within the VW ecosystem on each of the brands, which include Ducati, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, Skoda, Seat, VW, and others, as each is tasked with finding "a sharper focus as well as stricter discipline over costs and investments." 

That necessary success is already playing out with Porsche, as the company recently stated that it was going to focus less on volume and more on pricey sports and supercars. This comes off poor worldwide sales, failed EV launches and excitement, economic issues such as the aforementioned tariffs, taxes, and general current piss-poor economics, and an aging customer base. Porsche, it seems, has many of the same issues as Harley-Davidson as of late.

How this will affect Ducati, however, is yet to be seen. Though based on this statement, it will affect Ducati, as the Volkswagen spokesperson's statement announces that "The entire group has to become significantly more competitive." The question then becomes, "Who would buy Ducati?" if the brand can't rein in its spending and increase its competitiveness to the satisfaction of Volkswagen's higher-ups?

Ducati saw a small sales and revenue decline in 2025, as did the rest of the industry. But the brand name itself is known the world over. It has brand cachet that rivals most, competes in MotoGP (and wins), and still is a big player within the motorcycling world. The price for Ducati ain't going to be cheap.

For now, however, Ducati is still within Volkswagen and still has some of the best motorcycles around. So we'll have to wait and see what becomes of the famous motorcycle manufacturer from Borgo Panigale.

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