Piaggio Scooters
Anyone who’s in the scooter industry can recognize instantly the Piaggio name. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, Piaggio is the name of the company that produces the world famous Vespa scooters. Although Vespa scooters aren’t the only type of Piaggio scooters there are, they are certainly the most famous, and the company probably wouldn’t have survived the post war climate of the late 40’s Italy without the success of the Vespa.
Nowdays, Piaggio scooters are renown all over the world. In addition to the Vespa, the following Piaggio scooter brands are also produced by the company:
Aprilia. These Piaggio scooters are fast and powerful. The brand is not very known by its scooters, but rather by its motorcycles, which are used often in motorcycle races. Nevertheless, Aprilia includes several scooter models, out of which the most famous is the Aprilla SR50. This scooter is so powerful that in some countries, it’s legally classified as a motorcycle.
Derbi. This brand is the result of the purchase of a Spanish company by Piaggio in 2001. Although it used to produce some scooters, these were forgotten and now the subsidiary is focused only in the production of the Derbi GPR25 motorcycle.
Gilera. A rival of Piaggio who used to win most Grand Prix championships in the 50s. It was bought by Piaggio in 1969. It’s most famous model is the Gilera Runner, which is a cross between a moped and a scooter.
Piaggio. While all scooters that are produced under one of Piaggio’s brands can be considered Piaggio scooters, there are some scooters sold under the Piaggio name. The most famous of these Piaggio scooters is the Piaggio MP3, which has the peculiarity of having two wheels in the front and one in the back.
So, as you can see there is more to Piaggio scooters than the Vespa. That doesn’t mean to underestimate the success and popularity of that specific model, but to highlight the rich variety of Piaggio scooters.
Finally, a lot of people think that all the different types of Piaggio scooters compete between themselves and thus steal each other’s market share. In fact, it’s the opposite, they complement each other. Also, because a lot of people don’t know that all these brands belong to the same group, they don’t know that they’re actually helping the Piaggio name when they switch from one model to another. For example, if a person didn’t buy a Vespa, then he would be inclined to buy a Honda or a Yamaha, but he might as well buy a Piaggio or an Aprilia.