EICMA preview: Ducati celebrates its anniversary on home turf at the Milan Motor Show

EICMA is already making its presence felt. In November 2026, manufacturers, enthusiasts and the international press will once again gather in Milan to mark the end of this year’s motorcycling season and offer a glimpse of what’s to come next year. As is the case every year, almost all manufacturers will be presenting new models or, at the very least, giving the public a first live glimpse of their upcoming products.

Local manufacturers traditionally play a particularly prominent role at Fiera Milano Rho, and amongst them, Ducati stands out in particular. For the Bologna-based company, 2016 is a special year: they are celebrating their centenary, and as part of this, they intend to use the Milan show to stage a themed exhibition on their company’s history. New model launches are also planned, although none have been officially confirmed as yet.

Earlier this year, the Borgo Panigale-based brand has already unveiled its technical flagship, the Superleggera V4 Centenario, and Ducati’s ‘first supermoto racing bike’, the Desmo450 SM. The Café Racer Formula 73 draws on elements of the 1973 750 Super Sport Desmo, pays homage to the company’s history and is based on the current Scrambler generation. Like the new Superleggera generation, the Café Racer Formula 73 will be produced in limited numbers.

A series of special editions featuring historic paint schemes and a dry clutch, known as the ‘Collezione 100’, has also long since been unveiled. However, the Italians haven’t run out of ideas just yet: unlike in previous years, only a handful of new variants have been revealed so far. The Ducati Multistrada V4 S Grand Tour – essentially a fully-equipped Multistrada V4 – has been officially announced for the autumn.

Homologation data from the US suggests that the Panigale V4 SP is set to join the range. The long-established brand also offered a model of the same name from the previous generation. At that time, the SP filled the gap in the model range between the standard Panigale V4 S and the Panigale V4R superbike homologation model. We expect the new edition of the V4 SP to feature special aerodynamic components, a premium aluminium fuel tank, lightweight carbon fibre rims and a dry clutch. The power unit is likely to be the 1,103 cc ‘Desmosedici Stradale’ – the V4 engine that powers both the Panigale V4 and the Streetfighter V4, and thus not the 998 cc V4 found in the Panigale V4R.

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Its naked sister model, the Streetfighter V4, is also set to be offered as an SP variant for the 2027 model year. The previous generation adopted its chassis set-up from its fully faired sister model, the V4 SP, to emphasise its track-ready capabilities. The Californian type-approval database also suggests a minor update to the base Panigale V4 superbike and the Streetfighter V4; however, nothing more than minor cosmetic changes and improved electronic control systems are to be expected, as the current generation of this flagship model has only been on the market for two years.

Design-Skizze der Ducati Diavel des 2027er Jahrgangs

Foto: Ducati

The current generation of the Diavel is also powered by a V4 engine. A facelift is on the cards for the Bologna-built power cruiser, now four years old, in which the designers will carry over fairing details and modified air intakes from the previous top-of-the-range RS version to the base model, along with a new wheel and exhaust design. This is revealed by applications filed at the start of the year with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The most significant technical innovation is likely to be semi-active suspension, as the engine will remain the V4 in the ‘Granturismo’ variant, producing 170 PS.

On the off-road front, an enduro version of the Desmo250 MX is expected, though it is not certain whether this will be on display in Milan. No details regarding other new additions to the Italian manufacturer’s range have yet been made public, though there are likely to be new models in the V2 range as well. A completely new model is also expected; nothing is known about it yet, except that Ducati has promised the “highlight of the company’s anniversary celebrations” for the Milan show. This would therefore have to be a motorbike with which Ducati demonstrates what is technically feasible.