The Most Popular Scooter: Piaggio

By Brenda Williams

The Piaggio Group of Italy manufactures Vespas, the most popular scooter in Italy and around Europe. Piaggio is Europe’s largest manufacturer of two wheeled vehicles and the fourth largest in the world. Piaggio originally manufactured aircraft, especially for the war effort in World War II, but moved to motorcycles after the war because of the need for better transportation around the rubble-filled roads. The design is based off of the Cushman scooter that was manufactured in Nebraska before World War II. These scooters were all over Italy and Europe because they were used by the United States military forces and their allies to navigate the rough terrain of the European landscape. They were used mainly by the Paratroops and the Marines. The roads were so damaged because the Nazis would blow up bridges and demolish the roads as a defense mechanism to slow advancing troops.

When the MP6 model was developed, the founder’s son Enrico Piaggio listened to the buzz of the engine and screamed out “Sembra una vespa!” In Italian: “It resembles a wasp.” In 1946, Piaggio filed for a patent for the Vespa and began distribution on the scooter, producing the first 13 for the Milan Fair. Sales took off after a payment by installments was introduced. The numbers were staggering from that point forward. In 1947 Piaggio sold 2,500 Vespas. In 1948 the number of sales rose to 10,000. In 1949 the number doubled to 20,000 and in 1950 Piaggio sold 60,000 Vespas.

The movie “Roman Holiday” was a big help in the advertising and sale of the Vespa. In the movie, actress Audrey Hepburn rode alongside Gregory Peck on his Vespa for a ride through Rome. This resulted in the sale of approximately 100,000 Vespas that year. Some other famous Vespa owners and users were Dean Martin, Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Charlton Heston and Abbe Lane.

piaggio scooter

Vespas have been used in racing and have become extremely popular in the United States. The racing classes in the United States are the Small Frame Class, the Automatics Class, the Specials Class and the Stock Class. There are only five models of the Vespa being manufactured today. They are the PX, the CVT S, the CVT LX, the CVT GT and the CVT GTS. The final four are modern transmission and the first is a classic, manual transmission. Even though there are only five models in production today there have been 138 different versions of the scooter since its inception.

Other movies that have featured Vespas are “American Graffiti,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Encino Man,” “Revenge of the Pink Panther” and “Transformers.”

The Vespa is not just a scooter. Piaggio designed a version for automobile production called the Vespa 400. The engine is in the rear of the vehicle and was produced in France by ACMA with the designs provided from Piaggio. Two models were developed: the Turismo and the Lusso.

The rival Italian scooter company to Piaggio is Lambretta, which is still active today is racing production and civilian production.