Volkswagen's Audi brand announced earlier today that it will purchase the Italian motorcycle maker Ducati Motor Holding SpA for $1.1 billion. The purchase of the high-performance brand expands Volkswagen's current portfolio to eleven and puts Audi in even more direct competition with BMW. The two luxury carmakers have been battling on the automotive front in recent years, but now Audi will be able to chip away at BMW's share of the bike market as well.

Some analysts are saying that Volkswagen paid too much for the company, but as we've previously covered, Audi might see potential in Ducati's engineering innovations for its own vehicles—especially as engines continue to downsize and become more efficient. Here's a brief excerpt from our previous post:

"The new mill in Ducati's 1199 Panigale typifies advances unique to the

superbike genre that could some day be repurposed into the car world:

the 195 horsepower, 1,198cc engine features an oversquare profile

approaching that of an F1 powerplant. Frictional losses have been reduced through separate Nikasil-coated

aluminum wet cylinder liners, oil and water pump gears constructed of

lightweight techno-polymers, and pistons with a double-ribbed undercrown

area."

Check out the full post here.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io