Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech has voiced his interest in widening Europe's largest automakers horizons onto two wheels. In an interview with German magazine Stern he said: "I would still like a small, valuable motorcycle manufacturer." Piech still regrets not opting to buy the Ducati brand when the legendary Italian bike brand was in deep financial trouble in 1985. Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, still drives a 180 hp Ducati at the age of 71.

Ferdinand Piech's cousin Wolfgang Porsche, chair of Porsche's Supervisory Board, was also at the interview. Porsche is on the verge of taking a majority control of Volkswagen, currently holding 31% and waiting for regulatory authorities to approve the takeover. The two cousins said both companies would fall in line behind Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and VW CEO Martin Winterkorn.

A motorcycle brand would not be such an outrageous idea, after all BMW and Peugeot as car manufacturers have been very successful in the two-wheeler market.

 

I'm surprised at this, considering motorcycles only make up I think it's .5% of BMW's sales. I think Honda is more like 1-2% and they're the biggest motorcycle brand in the world. Sounds more like a heartstrings approach than a financial decision.

In other news, I didn't know Piech (+ umulat) was a Porsche.