The coming Auto Expo in January, 2012 maybe when the new Vespa LX 125 scooter will be launched in India. That is the industry grapevine and Motorbeam is carrying a story to that effect. Motorbeam also says that sale and deliveries of the Vespa will start in the month of August. The New Vespa LX125 scooter will be a twist and go like the market leader the Honda Activa but is expected to be priced around Rs. 60,000/-. Piaggio’s ads soliciting dealers have already started positioning the Vespa brand as a premium brand by calling it something more than a scooter, they are calling it a way of life. Piaggio need not work too hard to build the Vespa brand in India. In the past the company had licence to manufacturing Vespa scooters and they built the brand quite well. It was with Bajaj that Vespa’s innings in India began. It started as the Vespa 150 and became the Bajaj 150 once the licence period was over. All the subsequent scooters that Bajaj made such as the Priya 150, the Chetak, Super and Cub were all clones of the original. The second innings saw collaborations with LML and with Andhra Pradesh Scooters Ltd. While the former manufactured the 100cc Vespa XE and subsequently the Vespa 150 as the 150 NV, Star and Supremo. The Andhra Pradesh Scooters built vehicle was called the PL 170 where the 170 was the payload (and hence PL) in kilograms. The scooter was of 100cc and of robust design though it looked tiny and sold well for a few years before the company folded up due to mismanagement (it was a State Govt Company, so what else does one expect). So get ready to welcome for the first time Piaggio bringing Vespa all by itself. This is the third time and usually the third time is supposed to bring luck, not that there was bad luck the first two times.
Picture Courtesy: Motorbeam.com
