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Posted by hipstomp | 25 May 2010
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Volkswagen AG has set an ambitious goal for itself: To overtake Toyota as the largest car manufacturer in the world. According to Bloomberg/Businessweek,
Volkswagen "needs extra design facilities to back up this expansionist drive," Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, said today in a phone interview.
To serve that end, VW has just snapped up a 90% stake in Italdesign-Giugiaro, the Turin-based design house with its hands in everything from high-end automotive design to industrial design and even architecture. (Below is their concept Mustang from a few years ago.)
The two companies are not strangers, as Italdesign actually designed VW's Golf back in 1974. Nor will the merger lead to any redundancy in the design departments:
VW's design chief Walter de Silva said all of VW's global design centers will remain open, adding that the acquisition of Italdesign-Giugiaro should foster competition between design teams.
Comments
They also did the scirocco, the rabbit, and many other VWs.
I hope Italdesign-Giugiaro manages to retain its independence of design; it would be a shame if VW ownership constrained them.