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Giorgetto Giugiaro has a strong association
with VW having in the past designed the
iconic Golf (top) and Scirocco Mk1. Recent
hits for Giugiaro include the Alfa Romeo 159
(bottom) and Fiat Grande Punto. |
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According to
media reports, Germany's Volkswagen AG is poised to buy
a controlling stake in leading Italian engineering and
design firm Italdesign-Giugiaro, with the deal set to be
announced as early as next week. The news was reported
by Automotive News Europe which quoted two
separate sources and added that VW and
Italdesign-Giugiaro both declined to comment.
VW is
aiming to be the world's largest carmaker by 2018, targeting
production of 10 million vehicles a year, an ambition that
will require major expansions in every area, including in
design and engineering. Acquiring Italdesign-Giugiaro would
offer VW, which has 10 brands in its portfolio since it
absorbed Porsche, substantially increased design and
engineering capacity. This year, according to ANE, VW
will roll out no less than 60 new or refreshed models across
its brands. 71-year-old Giorgetto Giugiaro already has a
strong association with VW having in the past designed the
iconic Golf and Scirocco Mk1. Recent hits for Giugiaro
include the Alfa Romeo 159 and Fiat Grande Punto.
Italdesign–Giugiaro’s
roots date back to February 1968 and to the design
studio set up by Giorgetto Giugiaro and today Moncalieri
(Torino) HQ extend over 42,000 square meters while the
company counts up to 1,000 people in the world, with
premises in Italy as well as offices abroad, and the
company is equipped with 800 workstations, 16 NC milling
machines, 12 presses of various tonnages, 6 welding and
laser cutting robots, 15 measurement and metrology
systems and 3 virtual reality centres.
The first complete project of
major stature was the Alfa Romeo Alfasud, and since then
Italdesign Group has worked with all the major car
brands in Europe (Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Fiat, Ford
Europe, Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati, PSA Group,
Renault, Saab, Seat, Volkswagen, Volvo), Japan
(Daihatsu, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and
Toyota) and South Korea (Daewoo and Hyundai). Since 1996
Italdesign Giugiaro has been working with the rising
Chinese industries and today collaborations are carried
out with the ten first OEMs. The client list also
includes the United States (American Motors, Chrysler,
Ford and General Motors). In more than 40 years of
activity, Italdesign Giugiaro has developed more than
200 car models which have become, over the years, more
than 50 million production vehicles produced from the
world’s leading car makers.
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