The emission scandal has hit Volkswagen and it has hit hard. Hard enough for the company to consider selling Bentley, Lamborghini and even Ducati to repay its one year line of credit. The Volkswagen group told the concerned bank that it will consider selling its assets if it finds no other way of repaying the loan. Currently, there seems to be indeed no other way for the company. The emission scandal has caused the reputation of the German car maker to nosedive. With this piece of news, their condition just moved from bad to worse.
The Volkswagen group has several brands under its umbrella, which include the Audi, Bugatti, Porsche, Skoda, VW, etc. among others. It is interesting to note that the company has chosen Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati for the probable sale. It could be because the VW group values other brands more than these due to their specialization in niche products and low annual production numbers. Due to their small number of production annually, these companies don’t really move the needle and could be another reason why the VW group picked these over so many others for the probable sale.
Losing these luxury brands are sure to hit the company hard but desperate times call for desperate measures and this indeed seems one of those utterly desperate measures the company needs to come out with their head held high. Lamborghini is the only brand with VW that directly competes with Italian sport car brand – Ferrari. This particular divestment would also deal a severe blow to the diversity of brands under the VW group.
Ducati is another Italy based superbike maker renowned for its ultra fast superbikes and distinctive styling. It is also a major name in the Moto GP circuit. Bentley, on the other hand competes with the super luxury car maker – Rolls Royce. However, it does not seem like the company is interested in brand image at the moment. The only focus at this time is to come out of the biggest trouble the VW group has ever faced.
What about TATA group in this Race?
What about TATA group in this Race?
Mahindra will be eyeing either Bently or Ducati….