The transformation to electric mobility requires large investments: With intensified cooperation in their Brand Group, Audi, Bentley, Ducati and Lamborghini will experience increasing benefits from synergies on this path into the future. Cooperation within the group gives the brands the freedom to focus on their individual strengths.
The British luxury brand Bentley has been completely integrated at Audi since the beginning of this year. “We also used this as an opportunity to intensify our teamwork with Lamborghini and Ducati, and to reorganize the cooperation in our brand group from the ground up,” says Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Management at AUDI AG.
Audi took control of Bentley within the Premium Brand Group at the beginning of 2021. Since then, joint teams from Audi and Bentley have initiated numerous synergy projects and, as one example, have harmonized their research and development structures. Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark believes that the luxury brand has arrived within the group: “We already enjoy team-oriented cooperation on all levels. Our plans in the direction of electric mobility are certainly ambitious, but with the technical knowledge of all the brands in the group, we will succeed.”
Enhance synergies and strengthen individuality
From electrification to the development of software expertise: The brand group has great synergy potential. Thanks to the cooperation within the group, Audi is expected to see profits in the high hundreds of million euros in the next few years.
The brand group is also pursuing ambitious goals in terms of its operating margin: “From 2030, our plan is to achieve a long-term operating margin of more than 11% over the long term. Until then, our strategic target corridor will continue to be 9 to 11%. We have set ourselves ambitious targets to be measured against. All brands in the group are highly profitable and have enormous potential,” Markus Duesmann emphasizes.
To achieve this, Audi is consolidating the characteristic strengths of the brands. The specific expertise of the brands is reflected in the models. From the development of sports cars at Lamborghini to craftsmanship quality at Bentley, to the pioneering role of Ducati in the MotoE World Cup, the electric motorcycle world championship – the brand group appeals to a wide and highly attractive customer group.
Technology transfer strengthens brands on the way to electric mobility
The technology transfer within the brand group reduces complexity for all brands. Joint portfolio planning and a clear technology roadmap show the way.
Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati are moving toward electric mobility at different speeds but with the same goal – a climate-neutral future.
In the past year, both Lamborghini and Bentley sent a clear signal by investing billions in the transformation of their product portfolios. Ducati too is working on electric drives, and from the 2023 season will be the sole supplier of motorcycles for the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup.
Joint development projects for the models Bentley Bentayga and Audi Q8, as well as the Lamborghini Huracán and the Audi R8, show that the cooperation between the brands is working and unleashing synergies. In the future, a majority of the synergies will lie in the area of product development. Thanks to the early integration of Bentley and Lamborghini in the development of their first purely electric models, synergies within the brand group are already being utilized in the product development process, with specific customer requirements being incorporated in the early phase.
Brand Group: Top employers among themselves
The good cooperation within the brands and also in the brand network is also reflected in the annual awarding of the most attractive employers worldwide. In addition to Audi, the brands Bentley, Ducati and Lamborghini were chosen as top employers by the Top Employer Institute in the countries where they have their respective headquarters. “Strong brands with highly emotional products and high profitability can only come into being when their employees can realize their full potential and receive acknowledgment for their performance. These awards are very impressive evidence of this,” according Markus Duesmann.
