Piaggio to roll out Vespa by March for the third time

Italian automaker Piaggio will relaunch the iconic Vespa brand of gearless scooters by March this year in India, positioning it as a premium product.

This would be for the third time the Vespa brand is being launched in the country—first was in sixties with Bajaj Auto and later with LML in the 1980s.

Piaggio is creating an exclusive dealer network for the brand across the country and plans to tie up with 100 dealers.

It has created a capacity of 150,000 units at its Baramati plant and will gradually step up production as per the market demand.

Without giving further details on the pricing strategy, Ravi Chopra, chairman and managing director of the Indian operations of Piaggio, said, “We will position the product as a premium brand. It will be an aspirational product which will define luxury.”

The company unveiled the range of Vespa at the Auto Expo. It will start by launching the LX 125 scooter.

Piaggio has a significant presence in the three-wheeler and light commercial vehicle space with about 300 and 260 dealers, respectively, for both categories nationwide.

“Initially we are planning to develop exclusive outlets for Vespa. We will also look at utilising our existing dealer network for promoting the brand,” said Chopra.

The gearless scooter segment grew almost 25% in 2011.
The market share of scooters in the domestic two-wheeler industry has increased from 12% in 2006-07 to 18% last fiscal, totting up to 11.8 million units.

Companies including Suzuki Motorcycles, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India, Hero MotoCorp and Yamaha India have already announced their plans to tap the growing potential of this segment.