Most of Europe’s surviving motorcycle makers were in the Piaggio basket and with Piaggio having just announced intention of launching products in India there was no way this was going to be, Hero-Gilera, Hero-Derbi, Hero-Aprilia, or Hero-Moto Guzzi. Laverda is resting so why would anyone wake Laverda up? Benelli is barely surviving and has no products or technologies worth collaborating or buying out.
There are two iconic Italian brands, one of them definitely struggling and the other one always up for sale. We are talking about MV Auguta and Ducati. Claudio Castiglione’s death has put MV Augusta in a bit of a spot. Harley Davidson bought MV Augusta but hit by recession they promptly handed it back to Claudio Castiglione. Post his death was his son putting up the brand for sale or was it Ducati? Only a couple of days ago we had reported that sale of Ducati rumours were yet again gaining strength. Was Hero MotoCorp buying Ducati? That was very much in the realm of possibility. Inspite of having paid huge royalties to Honda for the Impulse, Ignitor, Passion X Pro and the Maestro, Hero surely has enough capital to pick up Ducati.
But let us face it, what will Hero MotoCorp do with Ducati? Ducati sells about forty thousand motorcycles per year and it does not have small engines in its portfolio so no, it could not be Ducati. The same would be true with MV Augusta which is essentially a two model company. And the only thing distinguishing between both the models is engine capacity and that smaller engine capacity is much bigger than anything Indians can afford to buy. So MV Augusta is out. More head scratching. Is it possible that Hero is renewing ties with BMW? Remember it did sell the BMW F650 Funduro. But then the motorcycle was priced at Rs. 5 lakhs and the by the time the last one was sold, the price dipped down below the Rs. 2 lakh mark. But BMW can make small engines. In fact, Escorts when it was still making motorcycles, toyed with the idea of bringing a 125-150cc capacity scooter with a roof. It was called the C1.
