VW Won’t Bite On $9.2B Offer for Lamborghini

British outlet Autocar reported Tuesday that Volkswagen received a $9.2 billion bid for Lamborghini from Zurich-based holding company Quantum Group AG.

Within hours of the report, VW made its position clear: “Lamborghini is not for sale.”

Quantum Group AG recently formed a consortium with London-based firm Centricus Asset Management and saw the Lamborghini brand, including its motorsports division, as a centerpiece for the “technology and lifestyle investment platform” that the two companies are building together.

• Lamborghini, which VW owns through its Audi subsidiary, has come up before as a possible divestment opportunity.
• VW is also the parent company to Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Ducati, and several other automakers.

All signs indicate that Lamborghini is committed to a competitive future. Last week, it announced that it’s spending $1.8 billion to develop plug-in hybrids of all its current models and produce fully electric cars by the second half of the 2020s.

It’s not immediately clear how the electric transition will affect the company’s motorsports operations, which include the GT World Challenge and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series.

Some of VW’s other brands have already made the jump on the racing front. Porsche entered the all-electric Formula E series in 2019, and Audi has been a participant since the first season kicked off in 2014.

Earlier in May, VW reported $4.1 billion in Q1 2021 revenue — a significant increase from the $633 million it recorded during the same quarter last year.