Ever since Audi (VW group) has taken over Ducati, the Italian brand has received a much needed shot in the arm that has rejuvenated the company. The last five years have seen it grow at a steady rate and currently the company has the strongest portfolio of machines that it ever had since its inception. The current market share of Ducati in the Europe region is about 10%. This number averaged about 15% before the huge financial slump in the last decade. The Ducati groups primary aim is to reclaim that market share and what that means is that they will try hard at the volume game. The first attempt at this is the Scrambler Ducati. This Ducati has been priced considerably cheaper than everything else in its range and is a motorcycle that could really be considered as a daily use machine. The second at this mass market could be a Ducati scooter.
Ducati CEO, Mr. Claudio Domenicali in an interview with the Italian website Moto.it goes on to say that a Ducati scooter could not be totally ruled out. He says that Ducati is a patron of the sports and style segment and anything that falls in this category is something Ducati can eventually end up doing. All though this is far from a confirmation of an upcoming Ducati scooter you need to consider two things before ruling it out. The first is the fact that this is not the first time this has come up. Back in 2011, news of a Ducati scooter had become strong but was outright denied by the then CEO. A reason sighted then by many Italian news sources was the fact that the company was not doing well at that point of time and could not really experiment in that direction. The current situation though is different. With strong year on year growth and the strong financial backing by Audi, Ducati are looking good to really expand their portfolio.
The second is of course the more obvious reason. The demand for easy in-city mobility has seen a huge surge in scooter sales in the European region. But the question remains will Ducati go the hyper scooter way like the Aprilia did with the SRV 850 or go the electric way like BMW did. The electric way would be a first from the company and we think is the direction the company should look at. The other options just do not go with the Ducati name, a lower capacity scooter would just ruin the premium feel and a super high capacity hyper scooter will not exactly sell. Early days these are for any sort of a final word. All we can say to Ducati is, surprise us!
