The announcement that VW has taken up 90.1 percent stake in Italdesign will come as a sigh of relief to its workforce. VW has stated that there will be no redundancies among the 800-strong work force. This takeover though may be bad news for other auto companies as apparently, it has been said that they will gradually relinquish relationships with other auto manufacturers such as BMW. Giugiaro has been credit for alot of the design and engineering work on BMW’s second generation MINI.
This would mean that they would eventually be designing exclusively for Volkswagen. “VW Group assured us [we would] keep our freedom and identity – we will keep our creative independence.” according to a spokesman from Italdesign. He also went on to add that Italdesign would also retain its technical engineering departments and would still be based in Turin.
“Giugiaro said it was a decision he took thinking of the opportunities looking to the market, which is becoming more and more global. Because we are a small company, we were fighting in such a big market – it could be a risk.” added the spokesman. The spokesman also confirmed that they will be working progressively with every brand within the VW group.
Though workers and employees of Italdesign will be safe, it would be a shame that the design and engineering concepts of the company will not be available to other fledgling automotive manufacturers. But if this even happens it’s likely to be slow and progressive and should not affect current contracts.
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Guess my little conspiracy theory has some truth in it after all :) Kinda figured that’ll happen.
So, IDG will become a branch of design dept for VW.. that’s all…
What’s gonna happen to the VW group designers?
what about EMAS? i believe we could be able to secured the design patent at least..
Proton paid for EMAS and therefore EMAS is Proton’s intellectual property. It would be a serious offence, if VW would use any EMAS work without Protons permission.
Not only that VW would lose every lawsuit concerning EMAS. More seriously, a lawsuit would damage VW’s reputation. Keep in mind how much money is spend for advertisements anually…
If VW wanted to use some parts of the EMAS design, it would simply contact Protons management and pay a few millions for it. This is not new in the car industry, as behind the curtain car companies are frequently working together. Examples: The Mercedes Vito is using VW TDI engines and the VW ‘crafter’ (a small lorry) is a Mercedes development, Lotus is using Toyota engines and even Toyota is using Peugeot diesel engines in their european ‘Aygo’… ;)
i don’t see why VW would want to use EMAS for its own vehicles. It has got the whole IDG for their own consumption. So, save the EMAS for Proton.
already said in last sentence..”But if this even happens it’s likely to be slow and progressive and should not affect current contracts.”
So how about proton emas and persona replacement?
bace la last sentence
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
there gone already opportunity for other auto car makers to access Giugiaro’s technical expertise…haih…VW is monopolising such a great design firm …
it’s sigh of relief for the employees but not for other car manufacturers that are using/going to use its design since they will be working exclusively with VW only. those who love IDG works will eventually need to buy cars from VW whether they like VW or not. But…i thought most ppl would buy cars because of branding’s sake and then only follow by design? No?
Proton to be bought by VW is invertible!!!!
So Proton is to be bought by VW but is reversible? Or Proton buying VW, which is impossible! What you want to say lah…
I think he meant inevitable.
Naah…. I think it’s enviable…
;-)
My bad. I mean its unavoidable! Soon Proton will be under VW, either directly or indirectly. Apologies for my bad spelling though!
Btw check out the malaysian insider and news emerged that there will be announcement between proton n volks in a couple of weeks! So does this rings the bell folks?
“VW Group assured us [we would] keep our freedom and identity – we will keep our creative independence.”
Independence? How is that so when in the future their only client is VW n its subsidiaries?
VW shouldn’t be too greedy =.=
I think they have their right to do so since they are now the owner of the company. By the way, you talked about greed. Who’s the greedy one in our country? :-)
yeah.. it finally out in open… VW has shown us what they really want to do.. they can’t compete with China low price. why give them good design? so stop it from design…
unsure what going to happen with persona replacement and EMAS concept. will SZA making announcement soon? hope we would still have the patern for that 2, the first and last design from giugiaro for Proton.
unless being taken over by VW. anyway SEAT would be up for sale to counter IDG buy over. :P
read la last sentence
tak boleh lawan China. please la check di China kereta jenama apa yang paling laku macam goreng pisang panas. Volkswagen no 1
Its VOLSWAGEN. selling million unit every year only in China. China is bigger overseas market for Volkswagen and bigger market for GM USA. Volkswagen get a bigger pie in China passanger car.
bring over IDG employees to lotus or proton. we need them.. badly!
Don’t be unfair.
Proton’s head of design, Azlan Othman, is a gifted designer.
A car is not designed by a single person.
agree. designed not by a single person but good design come from good teamwork
azlano – gifted?? man, look at his “masterpiece”.. that’s not what proton should do, even 7 yo carmaker in China could do better!
And what chinese car is designed by chinese designers?
I.e. Brilliance BS6 was designed by Giugiaro and Pininfarina.
I’m sure you can tell me many chinese designed cars, come on… ;)
even he can design and you see even 7 years old from china can design and how about you?
You’re insulting a person who can really design,so what’s the best car you can design….ermm 2D boxy car?
You can just shut up if you can’t design a car,you can see how good is azlano’s design,you can see how ugly is japanese car design,especially the toyota dugong and the ugly city
so, which Proton design are you so proud and that he can be proud of ? yes, he is a designer but there are thousands of designers who graduated every year and who can design. just because he can design does not mean his design is good. all the self-designed Proton look like shit, feel like shit and drive like shit.
orang Malaysia pandai design cuma tak diberi peluang untuk tonjolkan design mereka. Siapa tau Azlan punya design yg bagus. Maybe design nya tak dpt dijelma sbb Proton hanya tumpu market kelas rendah dan pertengahan
next vw buy proton…huhuw
proton have confirmed that there in talks with vw. results in two weeks.
The EMAS program would still be Proton.
No reason for VW to need the EMAS program…they already had the Up! concept up (pun intended) and running a long time ago.
I suppose I spoke too soon about Giugiaro continue to work for other manufacturers.
Other design companies will benefit from IDG closing itself off to non VW companies.
alamak, proton the first and the last concept car is emas. Proton in malaysia is no 1, can bully rakyat jual proton mahal kat malaysia kat luar jual murah. Vw is the world leader no 1 tau tapi tak bully orang pun.
Any thought bout Nazmi announcement of possible deal with VW?
http://paultan.org/2010/05/27/proton-to-announce-volkswagen-tie-up-talks-results-in-1-to-2-weeks-posts-profit-for-fy200910/
KZM – i did read the last sentences, but anything could happen, its a business world anyway, they would honor the current business but something must have happen thus making Proton have to make such haste announcement in a week time on collaboration with VW.