Carlos T. López Panisello: "Ducati is at the Best Moment in its History"

It was cold early in the morning, around 5 degrees, and a thick fog blurred everything around us in the village of Sober, in the heart of Ribeira Sacra. We had planned a route with the new XDiavel, and Carlos was programming the itinerary in the navigator while the two exuberant motorcycles idled with their throaty twin-cylinder sound. With the surname López Panisello, this 45-year-old from Tarragona has been leading the landing of the Italian brand in the Iberian Peninsula as General Manager of Ducati Spain and Portugal for two years, previously managed by a distributor.

After an exciting ride on the revamped sport-cruiser through the roads of this magical Galician natural setting, where the Miño and Sil rivers have carved impressive canyons and steep cliffs, we had an extensive chat with the leader about the start of this new phase, the current moment of the Borgo Panigale brand, the current "King Midas" of the two-wheeled industry, relentless in races and with the most exclusive bikes in dealerships. Carlos, a chatty and friendly person, has been hooked on motors all his life, but he confesses to being a biker since he was a child, equally at home on the track or lost on enduro trails, and it is instantly apparent from how he passionately conveys his role at Ducati.

"I am a biker and a car enthusiast. I love everything with wheels and the smell of gasoline since I can remember. I've had a motorcycle since I was 14, and I remember spending hours in my father's car in the parking lot at home, studying the manual, looking at the engine... I've always been good at fixing things, I'm a frustrated engineer. At home, I have old cars and motorcycles because they don't have that strong technological and electronic component, allowing me to fix, dismantle, learn, and sometimes make things worse... I've always had a strong connection with the motor world, and for me, the motorcycle has been linked to a concept of freedom, being connected with the world..."

"I am in love with the XDiavel, it's a surprising motorcycle. At first glance, aesthetically, it seems like a work of art, but dynamically, it might make you have doubts. It's the typical example of trying something and discovering that your mind faces a reality completely different from what you preconceived. It's a hyper-fast, hyper-dynamic motorcycle, with a spectacular cornering ability, braking and accelerating like a MotoGP. Dynamically, it's a constant surprise. As for the route... I'm in love with Galicia, its food, its culture... This route through the Ribeira Sacra seemed brutal to me, a bucolic setting, with the road skirting the river, the autumnal vegetation, and such intense and overwhelming landscapes that I was only thinking about coming back someday with family or friends. This area is one of Spain's great unknowns."

"One of the most fun times of my life, professionally speaking, has been setting up a project from scratch, with a completely new team and distribution network, and the need to understand the business. We've made mistakes, but we've also succeeded a lot. In the first year, we sold 10% more motorcycles than the previous year, and in 2025 we are going to achieve the historical sales record in Spain and Portugal, with a 17% growth and a total of 2,800 units sold. And with the added value that the market is not growing."

"I now see the market in a complicated moment. It is growing mainly due to the arrival of new brands and products from abroad, which previously might have had a fairer quality, but today present greater reliability, better image, and competitive price. The little growth there is comes from these brands, and it is making the growth of the traditional generalist brands conditioned by this fact."

"In general, the market is divided between motorcycles below or above 500 cc. Below, in a very high percentage, it's pure and simple mobility, moving from point A to point B. Above, it's a component of passion, larger and more powerful engines, where that slightly more irrational concept of the biker who seeks to experience, live, feel something different comes in... In that market, we are the benchmark.

And Ducati has a very clear strategy in this regard, to become more and more premium. The market is alive, things are constantly coming and going, and this forces brands to restructure. We want to be as high as possible, offering increasingly exclusive experiences to customers, not only from the product perspective but also from customer service and facilities. When we started managing the business, 33% of the facilities in the peninsula were exclusive; today, we are at 70%. Ducati is not mobility; Ducati is passion. We sell products to people who don't just want to move but want to enjoy, dress with the motorcycle, feel the motorcycle, fulfill themselves, and let the motorcycle speak for them. And this is what makes us different... We are a factory of dreams, we make toys for grown-ups, and we focus everything towards that. Moreover, we have a 100-year history, betting on style, performance, and design, and also on competition. Our logo is a curve. All these values give us a lot of strength in this new environment and make us known everywhere in the world."

"Today, it's not a segment we are going to be in or are working to be in. As a premium brand, we are clear that we want to make very exclusive products and want to be at the high end of the segment. The A2 has very competitive and reduced margins, and it's where all the new brands are entering. It's a revolutionized segment and doesn't form part of our DNA. The environment we feel comfortable in is the sporty one, with more robust motorcycles linked to the concept of passion rather than purely mobility."

"Ducati is at the best moment in its history by far. VW provides Ducati with a safe financial and organizational framework, in which a group of 'crazy' engineers have the possibility to work calmly and develop all their creativity. Ducati is using Ducati's technology, and at specific moments, it has been able to take something from the group, but the motorcycles are developed and made by Ducati 95%."

"We have been sponsoring the MotoE world championship for many years, in which everything was electric Ducatis. All the money and development we have put there is a statement of intent. But we will not release an electric motorcycle to the market until we achieve performance that is within the standards and values of the brand. But we are close."

"There is no immediate indicator. But I don't think Marc's success conditions our sales. What does condition them is brand building. And that, today, from a marketing and business perspective, is a polyhedral concept, with many faces, the face of the image, the product, the brand representatives, the factories, the sport... And Marc is just one more face."

"Recently, we have renewed one of our star products, which is the new Monster, lighter, with a new engine, with a narrower leg arc to reach the ground better, tremendously agile and easy to ride and fun, maintaining the essence of Ducati and Monster, which has been a benchmark in the motorcycle world. We have also just launched the new Panigale R, a marvel of technology, almost the pinnacle... And the Multistrada Rally V4, an update of the previous one with very striking colors and a lot of personality, which takes the latest innovations from the Multi V4, with electronic suspension, etc. We have also released two very iconic models like the Diavel RS and the Multi RS, which come with the V4 Granturismo engine, which is putting a Panigale engine in a trail and a cruiser bike, with a dry clutch. And at Eicma, we have also seen other launches like the new Hypermotard V2, which turns 20, the DesertX, the Desmo250 MX, and the Desmo450 Enduro, two world premieres of the off-road range."

"The Panigale V4 Superleggera, which we launched six years ago."

"Route 66"

"Crossing the Atlantic sailing by sail, or Cape Horn. I like the sea and it is part of the great feats."