Piaggio eyes Indian two-wheeler market

Italian two-wheeler company Piaggio & C spa, through its subsidiary in India - Piaggio Vehicles Private - will re-enter the country with its iconic brand of scooters, Vespa, in 2012 at the Auto Expo in New Delhi. Piaggio had launched the Vespa brand in India in the 1950s and then relaunched it in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s in association with the Firodias first, and later with LML. This time, the company is coming on its own with a range of Vespa gearless scooters.

The company will be manufacturing the gearless scooters from its plant at Baramati in Maharashtra, which will have a capacity of 1.5 lakh units for scooters. The company said it is looking at 100% localisation on the scooters.

Ravi Chopra, chairman and managing director, Piaggio India, said, "We want to place Vespa as an iconic brand in India. We will start manufacturing of Vespa scooters in 2012." He added that the company is in the process of shortlisting the models it plans to bring to India. The largest market for the Vespa range is the European Union, followed by the US. There are around 17 million Vespas in the world. It is sold in around 100 countries across the globe.

Piaggio has spent euro 30 million on setting up the two-wheeler plant in Baramati, while around euro 60 million has been spent on setting up the engine plant in the same vicinity. The company has already started producing petrol engines for Vespa scooters at the plant, which it is currently exporting to Italy. "We are producing 125 cc and 50 cc Vespa engines at the moment and will later start producing for Indian market in 2012. The engine plant will also produce diesel engines including 1 litre and 1.2 litre. We have started exports of 1.2 litre diesel engine to Italy and will soon start production of 1 litre diesel engines for Indian requirement, for the four-wheeler planned for India."

Piaggio on Thursday showcased the Vespa LX 125 cc, expected to be the first from the Vespa range in India, its superbike Aprilia RSV4 in Mumbai. The Aprilia models are expected to be priced between Rs 13-18 lakh. The company plans to set up select company owned outlets to sell the Aprilia range in the country. The cities it is looking at include Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, to mention a few. It would be available for bookings soon and it will take four to five months for the company to import the motorcycle as per orders, a senior official of the company said. The pricing of the Vespa is not yet decided by the company but said will be competitive in the market.