Piaggio to Launch New Affordable Scooters under Vespa brand

Brand Vespa is around 5 decade old in India, and its latest re-entry has got a mixed response from the Indian market. Being a premium product, Vespa doesn't qualify for big sales numbers and Piaggio's hopes were also modest for the scooter, only 90,000 units sell annually. But unfortunately, they are not getting these figures. To make things better, Piaggio is now gearing up to launch an affordable scooter range under the brand Vespa. Piaggio has already reduced the prices twice for the Vespa LX125, which led to strong growth in demand for the scooter. But the LX125 is still the most expensive scooter in the country, thus a few cheaper options might help the brand to grow in India. The company hopes to sell at least 90,000 units by December, more than double its monthly volumes.

Ravi Chopra, chairman and managing director, Piaggio Vehicles India, said, “We have clocked 4,500-5,000 units in monthly sales in the last two months. We are trying to see how to increase this by 1,000 units every month. Till the festive period, we should be doing 8,000 units. Out target is 90,000 vehicles this calendar year.” According to SIAM, Piaggio sold about 35,000 units of the Vespa during the April-February period. The reason is its hefty price tag of Rs 62,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai), which makes the Vespa significantly expensive compared to India’s highest selling scooter, the Honda Activa (Rs 51,220).

In the coming months, the Vespa would be launched with added features such as disc brakes and new colour schemes. “We have new variants of the Vespa lined up. Before the end of this year, there would be another version of the Vespa. We would have a sportier Vespa by the festive season,” Chopra said. Paiggio recently introduced brand Moto Guzzi in India, and now the company is not going to launch any other two-wheeler brand in India; it plans to focus solely on the Vespa. Earlier, there were reports that Piaggio is planning to introduce more scooters under a different brand in India. According to those reports, Piaggio was planning to launch the new range of scooters by end of the year 2013, under brand Piaggio. The new scooter would launch to compete against Honda Activa, the Yamaha Ray and the Hero Pleasure.