Volkswagen may sell Ducati and take Lamborghini public in sweeping restructuring

Volkswagen Group is not done shedding prized assets. Months after Porsche exited the Bugatti Rimac joint venture — marking the first time since 1998 that Bugatti operated outside Volkswagen’s orbit — multiple reports suggest the German conglomerate could soon part ways with Ducati and push Lamborghini toward a public listing.

The Financial Times reports that consultants hired by Volkswagen are pushing the group to sell more businesses, with Ducati — the iconic Italian motorcycle brand — near the top of the list. Separately, advisors have proposed turning Lamborghini into a publicly traded company. Volkswagen would retain control of the supercar brand through its Audi subsidiary, but selling shares to the public would raise capital for the group’s ongoing transformation.

When RideApart asked Volkswagen for comment, the company’s spokesperson did not directly deny the Ducati sale rumors. Instead, the response was notably broad: all brands and subsidiaries within the group must undergo a “deep transformation,” and the company is actively restructuring its business architecture.

Volkswagen’s full statement painted a stark picture. The decades-old playbook — develop vehicles in Germany, manufacture them in Europe, and ship them overseas — no longer works. In July 2025, then-Porsche CEO Oliver Blume sent an internal memo to employees bluntly stating that the business model “can no longer continue in its current form.” Blume has since stepped down from Porsche to focus full-time on running the entire Volkswagen Group.

Bugatti is not the only brand Volkswagen has shed. Last week, the group announced plans to sell a majority stake in Everllence, its marine diesel engine business, in a deal expected to generate roughly 7.4 billion euros (about 57.3 billion yuan). Meanwhile, German outlet Bild reports that Volkswagen’s autonomous driving project with Bosch — run through the group’s struggling CARIAD software subsidiary, which has already burned through 1.5 billion euros — could also be terminated.

German business magazine Manager Magazin reports the broader restructuring plan includes closing four factories and eliminating 100,000 positions. Volkswagen has already confirmed it will cut more than 35,000 jobs in Germany alone by the end of the decade, but insiders suggest the final number could be far higher.

For now, only two moves are confirmed: Porsche’s exit from the Bugatti Rimac joint venture, and Volkswagen’s sale of a 51% controlling stake in Everllence (it retains the remaining 49%). Everything else — Ducati, Lamborghini, factory closures, mass layoffs — remains unconfirmed by the company. But the pattern is clear: Volkswagen is shrinking its empire to fund its future.