德国大众盯上全球老大宝座

    现在奥迪正在与意大利摩托车厂商杜卡迪（Ducati）谈判，希望将其收入旗下。收购杜卡迪将有助于奥迪与宝马进行竞争，因为宝马公司也生产宝马牌的豪华摩托车。用发烧友的行话来说，bimmer指的就是宝马的轿车，beemer说的就是宝马的摩托车。而杜卡迪则是影星汤姆•克鲁斯、布拉德•皮特以及地产大亨山姆•泽尔的最爱，它的加入可能也会给奥迪带来一批新的拥趸。成立于1926年的杜卡迪在过去60年中曾摘下17个世界锦标赛冠军，以及2011年的世界超级摩托车锦标赛冠车（the 2011 World Superbike Championship）的头衔。此外，杜卡迪的小型发动机技术也可能为奥迪带来一些战略利益。

    美国是大众集团表现最弱的市场，这主要是由于大众曾在这里犯下一系列管理和战略失误。不过随着田纳西州查特怒加市的大众工厂开工生产，局面可能改观，大众正在这家工厂生产新款帕萨特（Passat）中级轿车。托普拉克称：“大众公司希望今年美国市场上的销量能上升到50万台。他们现在表现得非常有侵略性。”

    接下来还得说说大众的控股家族——保时捷家族，这个家族在德国和奥地利树大根深。大众最近的成功离不开现任主席费迪南德•皮耶希的领导，而皮耶希正是大众汽车公司创始人、甲壳虫汽车（Beetle）的设计师费迪南德•保时捷的外孙。皮耶希今年74岁，整个汽车业都知道他是个苛刻、严格、从不妥协的工程师，当费迪南德检查工作的时候，下属们都吓得两股战战。大众集团的股票是公开交易的，不过保时捷家族的股份享有超级投票权。

    本周一的大众集团年会上，监事会任命费迪南德•皮耶希的妻子乌尔苏拉•皮耶希担任监事会成员。乌尔苏拉曾经是皮耶希家族的保姆，她为费迪南德育有三子（费迪南德一共有12个孩子）。其实大众集团上演兄弟阋墙的戏码已经很久了。“大众之父”费迪南德•保时捷的孙子沃尔夫冈•保时捷一直觊觎大众的控制权，因此早先沃尔夫冈•保时捷之前曾试图用规模相对小得多的保时捷公司来收购大众集团。2008年金融危机爆发后，保时捷公司“蛇吞象”的努力失败，情势骤然逆转。大众集团出资拯救了债务累累的保时捷公司，然后大众开始反过来收购保时捷，买下了后者的控股权。

    许多人都不曾料到乌尔苏拉•皮耶希会进入大众监事会。大众集团一向称她为幼儿园老师，不过也有人表示，曾看见过乌尔苏拉在家族摩擦中扮演和事佬的角色。常言道，二虎相争必有一伤，但皮耶希与保时捷的恩怨似乎反而成就了今天的大众集团。大众现任主席费迪南德•皮耶希早年曾被亲舅舅费里•保时捷开除出保时捷公司，之后才进入大众，成就一番伟业。现在随着大众集团的蓬勃发展，皮耶希似乎已经实现了他曾说过的三项至爱：“大众汽车、家庭、以及金钱”。

    译者：朴成奎

    Now, Audi is negotiating to buy premium Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati. Ownership of Ducati would add another powerful brand in the company's duel with BMW, which manufactures luxury motorcycles under the same name. In the parlance of enthusiasts, bimmers are BMW cars and beemers are BMW motorycles. Ducati, a favorite of actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as well as real estate titan Sam Zell, would bring some of that zeal to Audi. Founded in 1926, Ducati won 17 manufacturer's World Championships in the past 60 years and the 2011 World Superbike Championship title. Its smaller engine technology could also provide a strategic benefit to Audi.

    VW's weakest presence is in the U.S., where it has lagged due to a series of management and strategic mistakes. But that could be changing with the opening of a new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the company is building its new VW Passat midsize sedan. "The US is an anomaly for VW," said Toprak. "The company has aspirations to raise its sales here to half a million this year. They're being very aggressive."

    And then there's the family. Controlled by the Porsche family, with roots in Germany and Austria, VW has hit its stride under the leadership of its chairman, Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Beetle designer and VW founder, Ferdinand Porsche. Piech, 74, is known in the automobile industry as an exacting, demanding and uncompromising engineer – whose minions quake in their boots when he inspects their work. VW shares trade publicly; the family has control via a super-voting stock.

    At the VW annual meeting on Monday, the supervisory board nominated another Piech to join it, Ursula, 55 who is Ferdinand's wife. A former nanny to the Piech family, she is the mother to three of his 12 children. The VW empire is trying to resolve a bitter and complicated feud over control between Ferdinand and another grandson, Ferry Porsche, who tried to take over VW, using the much smaller Porsche company as his base. The tables were turned after the 2008 financial crisis when VW rescued debt-laden Porsche and bought a controlling stake.

    If Ursula Piech seems an unlikely figure on VW's board -- the company has described her as a kindergarten teacher -- she is seen by some as playing peacemaker among the hostile family factions. VW, against expectations, may ultimately have benefitted from the animosities within the family. The carmaker's current chairman came to VW as a career alternative when Ferry Porsche, founder, banned him and other Porsches from the sports car company. Now, with the VW Group pushing ahead, Piech looks fulfilled in what he once listed as his three great loves: "Volkswagen, family and money."