Piaggio Group () is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...

s and compact commercial vehicles under five brands:

Piaggio Piaggio Group () is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under five brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi and Derbi. Its corporate headquarters are ...

Vespa Vespa () is an Italian brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy, to a ...

Aprilia Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle and Scooter (motorcycle), scooter manufacturer in Noale, Italy, founded by Alberto Beggio. History Early days Aprilia, named after the Pre-war automobile, pre-war Lancia Aprilia, was founded after the Seco ...

Moto Guzzi Moto Guzzi () is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer and the oldest European manufacturer in continuous motorcycle production. Established in 1921 in Mandello del Lario, Italy, the company is noted for its historic role in Italy's motorcyclin ...

and

Derbi Derbi is a manufacturer of motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and recreational all-terrain vehicles produced by Nacional Motor S.A.U., currently integrated into the Italian (2009) Piaggio Group. History Derbi's origins began with a little bicycle wo ...

. Its corporate headquarters are located in

Pontedera Pontedera (; ) is an Italian comune with a population of 30070, located in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Central Italy, central Italy. The town is located 20 km (12 miles) from Pisa and 50 km (31 miles) from Florence. It houses the headquarte ...

, Italy. The company was founded by Rinaldo Piaggio in 1884, initially producing

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s and railway carriages. Piaggio Group's subsidiaries employ a total of 7,053 employees and produced a total of 519,700 vehicles in 2014. The manufacturer has six research-and-development centres and operates in over 50 countries.

History

In 1882, Enrico Piaggio purchased land in

Sestri Ponente Sestri Ponente is an industrial suburb of Genoa in northwest Italy. It is part of the Medio Ponente ''municipio'' of Genoa. Geography It is situated on the Ligurian Sea four miles to the west of the city, between Pegli and Cornigliano. Its po ...

(

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

) to set up a timber yard. Two years later, in 1884, his 20-year-old son, Rinaldo Piaggio (1864–1938), founded Piaggio & C. The company initially built locomotives and railway carriages. In 1917, towards the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Rinaldo Piaggio turned to the military sector: The company started to produce MAS anti-

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

motorboats,

aeroplanes An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, ...

and

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

s under Ansaldo, Macchi,

Caproni Caproni, also known as ''Società de Agostini e Caproni'' and ''Società Caproni e Comitti'', was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Its main base of operations was at Taliedo, near Linate Airport, on the outskirts of Milan. Founded by Giova ...

, and Dornier

license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

s. Later the company progressed to vehicles constructed according to Piaggio's own drawings. Between 1937 and 1939 Piaggio achieved 21 world records with its aircraft and engines built at the company's new factory in

, culminating in the four-engine Piaggio P.108 bomber. Rinaldo died in 1938, by which time Piaggio was owned by multiple shareholders within the family, along with the entrepreneur

Attilio Odero Attilio, one of the legendary martyrs of the Theban Legion, is venerated as a saint in the area of Trino Vercellese, in Piedmont, north-west Italy and commemorated on 28 June. However his cult is no longer officially recognized by the Roman Ca ...

. Management of the company passed to his sons Enrico and Armando. By 1940 Piaggio was manufacturing trains,

nautical Seamanship is the art, competence, and knowledge of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topic ...

fittings,

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...

s, aeroplanes, trucks, trams, buses,

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

s and aluminium windows and doors. The

plant was destroyed by Allied bombing and production activities were relocated to the

Biella Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...

area. After the war, Enrico Piaggio decided to diversify the company's activities outside the aeronautical industry to address a perceived need for a modern, affordable mode of transport for the Italian mass market. The first attempt, based on a small

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

made for

parachutists Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

, was known as the MP5 and nicknamed the " Paperino" (the Italian name for

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

) because of its strange shape. Ultimately Enrico Piaggio did not like it and asked

Corradino D'Ascanio General Corradino D'Ascanio (1 February 1891 in Popoli, Pescara – 6 August 1981 in Pisa) was an Italian aeronautical engineer. D'Ascanio designed the first production helicopter, for Agusta, and designed the first motor scooter for Ferdinando ...

to redesign it. D'Ascanio, an aeronautical engineer responsible for the design and construction of the first modern helicopter by

Agusta Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first aeroplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot ...

, was not naturally enthusiastic about

s, judging them to be uncomfortable and bulky, with wheels that were difficult to change after a puncture. When asked to design a motorcycle for

Ferdinando Innocenti Ferdinando Innocenti (; 1 September 1891, in Pescia, Italy – 21 June 1966, in Varese) was an Italian businessman who founded the machinery-works company Innocenti and was the manufacturer of the Lambretta motorscooter. Biography Ferdina ...

, D'Ascanio had come up with a step through scooter design but D'Ascanio and Innocenti disagreed over use of a pressed steel frame rather than tubular, so D'Ascanio took his design to Piaggio. Innocenti would ultimately use D'Ascanio's original design for their

Lambretta Lambretta () was a brand of motor scooters, manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Innocenti. The name is derived from the word Lambrate, the suburb of Milan named after the river Lambro which flows through the area, and where the factory was locat ...

scooter. Piaggio asked D'Ascanio to create a simple, robust and affordable vehicle. The

had to be easy to drive for both men and women, be able to carry a passenger, and not get its driver's clothes dirty. The engineer's drawings proved a significant departure from the Paperino. With the help of Mario D'Este he prepared the first Vespa project, manufactured at Piaggio newly rebuilt Pontedera headquarters in April 1946. Piaggio launched the

(Italian for "

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

") and within ten years more than a million units had been produced. The Italian language gained a new word, "vespare", meaning to go somewhere on a Vespa. In 2024, Piaggio celebrated 140 years with limited edition of '

140th of Piaggio,' with only 140 units available from April 18 to 21, 2024.

Ownership

Vespa thrived until 1992 when Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, son of Antonella Bechi Piaggio and Umberto Agnelli, became CEO. Agnelli was very successful in expanding production and modernising the offer. He died unexpectedly of cancer in 1997, aged 33. In 1999 Morgan Grenfell Private Equity acquired Piaggio, but hopes for a quick sale were dashed by a failed joint venture in China. In Italy, Piaggio invested 15 million euros in a new motorcycle but dropped it after building a prototype. By the end of 2002, the company had run up 577 million Euros in debt on revenues of 945 million Euros, and booked a loss of 129 million Euros. In 2003 Piaggio's debt was reduced by a 100 million Euro investment made by IMMSI, a holding company of the Colaninno family. 150 million shares were also converted by creditor banks. Reflecting on his investment, Roberto Colaninno said, "A lot of people told me I was crazy. Piaggio wasn't dying. It just needed to be treated better."" Colaninno became the new chairman of Piaggio, and Rocco Sabelli the managing director. Sabelli redesigned the production line according to Japanese principles so that every Piaggio scooter could be made on any assembly line. Contrary to expectations, Colaninno did not sack a single worker; a move which helped seduce the company's skeptical unions. "Everyone in a company is part of the value chain," said Colaninno. All bonuses for blue-collar workers and management were based on the same criteria: profit margins and customer satisfaction. Air conditioning was installed in the factory for the first time, increasing productivity. He also gave the company's engineers, who had been idled by the company's financial crisis, deadlines for projects. They rolled out two world firsts in 2004: a gas-electric hybrid scooter and a sophisticated tilting scooter with two wheels in front and one in back to grip the road better. One of Piaggio's problems Colaninno couldn't fix from the inside was its scale. Even though Piaggio was the European market leader, it was dwarfed by rivals

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

and Yamaha. A year after restoring Piaggio's health, Colaninno directed Piaggio's takeover of the Italian scooter and motorcycle manufacturer

, and with it the Aprilia-owned

, a storied Italian manufacturer of motorcycles. In 2006, Piaggio was floated on the

Milan Stock Exchange Borsa Italiana () or Borsa di Milano (), based in Milan at Mezzanotte Palace, is the Italian stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries and supervi ...

, becoming a public company.

Production

In 1956, with production of the millionth

scooter, Italy had its first mass-produced motorised vehicle. Taking advantage of increased cash flow thanks to the success of the Vespa, Piaggio developed other products, including the 1957

Vespa 400 The Vespa 400 is a rear-engined microcar, produced by ACMA (Ateliers de construction de motocycles et d'automobiles), ACMA in Fourchambault, France, from 1957 until 1961 to the designs of the Italian Piaggio company. Three different versions were ...

, a compact passenger car. In 1959 Piaggio came under the control of the

Agnelli family The Agnelli family () is an Italian multi-industry business dynasty family founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the Fiat motor company which became Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. They are also primarily known fo ...

, the owners of car maker Fiat SpA. By 1960 Vespa had produced and sold 4 million units worldwide. In 1964 the aeronautical and motorcycle divisions of Piaggio split to become two independent companies as a result of the wide ownership by Fiat in Italian industry. The aeronautical division was named IAM Rinaldo Piaggio. The aircraft company Piaggio Aero was controlled by the family of Piero Ferrari, who still hold 10% of

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

. In 1969 Piaggio purchased the motorcycle company

Gilera Gilera is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded in Arcore in 1909 by Giuseppe Gilera (1887–1971). In 1969, the company was purchased by Piaggio. History Giuseppe Gilera founded his self-named motorcycle company in 1909 (aged 22) near M ...

, one of the oldest European motorcycle manufacturers (founded in 1909), famous for its sporting achievements and world titles in the Motorcycle World Championship. In 1971 a steering wheel was added to the

Piaggio Ape The Piaggio Ape (; being ), initially marketed as VespaCar or TriVespa, is a three-wheeled light commercial vehicle, manufactured and marketed by Piaggio as an adaptation of the company's Vespa scooter ( being Italian for 'wasp'). It has been in ...

, a model first produced in 1948, culminating in the Ape Car. Four years later, in 1975, the company made the first prototype of an electric Ape. In 1988 the Vespa reached 10 million units produced. In 1996, on the fiftieth anniversary of the first model,

passed 15 million units produced and the new 4-stroke Vespa ET, the first completely new Vespa for 18 years, was launched. Piaggio was still in poor financial health but its brand recognition remained strong, boosted by the appearance of the ET4 in several Hollywood films. In 1999, in

Baramati Baramati (Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɾamət̪iː is a city, a tehsil and a municipal council in Pune district in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is about 100 km (62 miles) southeast of the city of Pune and about 250 km from M ...

, production began on a three-wheeler Ape for the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n market. In 2000 Piaggio and Vespa returned to the United States with the opening of the first Vespa Boutique in Los Angeles. In that same year the Piaggio Historical Museum was inaugurated in

. The museum showcases the Piaggio Historical Archive, one of the most comprehensive company archives on the industrial history of Italy. In 2001 the Piaggio Group acquired Derbi-Nacional Motor SA, an historical Spanish brand founded in 1922 that had won 18 world titles and was a continental leader in the small displacement motorbike segment. In the same year

returned to the Motorcycle World Championship and immediately won the world title in the 125 category with Manuel Poggiali. In April 2004 Piaggio and Chinese manufacturer Zongshen signed a memorandum of understanding for the creation of the “Zongshen Piaggio Foshan Motorcycle”

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with a plant in Foshan for the production of scooters for the Chinese market. In 2004, at the end of December, the final contract for the acquisition of the

Group was signed. The most important European two-wheeler group is born. In 2007 Piaggio Group arrived in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The Vinh Phuc plant includes R&D, welding and painting activities, as well as final assembly of the scooters, with warehouse, testing, quality control and office areas. In 2009 the Piaggio Mp3 Hybrid made its debut on the market which was first hybrid scooter in the world, integrating the conventional low-environmental-impact internal combustion engine with a zero-emission electric motor and combining the advantages of the two power trains. In

(State of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

), in 2012, the Piaggio Group's new plant for the production of Vespa's for the local market was opened. In 2013 the PADC, Piaggio Advanced Design Center opened in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

(California, United States). The Vespa 946 was also launched this year, along with the new Vespa Primavera, the latest evolution of the "small body" family. In 2013 Vespa's worldwide sales numbered almost 190,000 units; in 2004 the figure stood at 58,000. In ten years of continuous progression over 1.3 million new Vespas have been produced. Since 1946 over 18 million Vespas have been produced and sold. In September 2017 Foton and Piaggio agreed to form a joint venture to develop and produce light commercial vehicle. Based on Foton chassis the new vehicle was sold by Piaggio Commercial Vehicle division globally apart from China. The vehicle is intended to be a successor of the Piaggio Porter and production was planned to start in mid-2019 in

(

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) with all components produced by Foton in China.

"Cultural Project" Piaggio

Piaggio's "cultural project" promotes the reconstruction and enhancement of the company's heritage and is composed by three initiatives: the Piaggio Foundation, the Historical Archives and the Piaggio Museum. In 2003 the Museum and Archives were recognised as the Best Corporate Museum and Archive by winning the Italian prize "Premio Impresa e Cultura". In 2016, under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Piaggio received the Corporate Art Award from

pptArt The Corporate Art Awards are the international awards for the best art projects developed by the business world. They were launched in Rome (Italy) in 2016 by pptArt under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture and with the support of th ...

for its Corporate Museum.

Brands

Current Piaggio Group brands

– motorcycles, scooter and

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. Historically, the term exclusively meant a similar vehicle with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle eng ...

s *Piaggio – scooters, mopeds. *

– scooters and mopeds *

– motorcycles * Piaggio Commercial Vehicles –

light commercial vehicle A light commercial vehicle (LCV) in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand is a commercial carrier vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 3.5 metric tons (tonnes). The LCV designation is also occasionally used in both Cana ...

Dormant brands

* Scarabeo – scooters and mopeds *

– motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and recreational ATVs (''quads'') *

– motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and recreational ATVs (''quads'') 1909 – 2020 * Laverda – motorcycles

Vehicle

Current production

2-wheeled vehicles * Piaggio Fly (Asian market) * Piaggio Beverly * Piaggio Liberty * Piaggio Medley *

* Piaggio Zip * Piaggio X7 (Asian market) * Piaggio 1 3-wheeled vehicles * Piaggio MP3 *

* Piaggio MyMoover Commercial vehicles Piaggio_Porter_NP6_IMG_5961

* Piaggio Porter

Discontinued

2-wheeled vehicles * Piaggio Boss * Piaggio Boxer * Piaggio Bravo * Piaggio Carnaby * Piaggio Ciao * Piaggio Cosa * Piaggio Diesis * Piaggio Free * Piaggio Grande * Piaggio Grillo * Piaggio Hexagon * Piaggio NRG * Piaggio Quartz * Piaggio Scatto * Piaggio Sfera * Piaggio Skipper * Piaggio Si * Piaggio Toledo * Piaggio Typhoon * Piaggio Vespino * Piaggio Velofax * Piaggio X7 * Piaggio X8 * Piaggio X9 * Piaggio X10 * Piaggio Xevo 3-wheeled vehicles * Piaggio Ciao Porter Commercial vehicles * Piaggio Quargo All-terrain vehicles * Piaggio Trackmaster (rebadged

Arctic Cat Arctic Cat is an American brand that makes snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles (ATV's) manufactured in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The company was formed in 1960. Arctic Cat designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets all-terrain vehicle ...

TRV) Quadricycles * Piaggio M500 (rebadged

Casalini Casalini (founded in 1939 by Giovanni Casalini) is an Italian company that designs, manufactures, and distributes "light vehicles". Founded in 1939, Casalini is one of the oldest microcar producers in the world. The Casalini production fac ...

Ydea) * Piaggio AL500 (rebadged

Grecav Grecav was an Italian automobile and farm machinery manufacturer from Gonzaga, Lombardy, Gonzaga, province of Mantua. The company produced, among other things, light motor vehicles. It was founded in 1964 by Cav. Carlos Toraño through the merge ...

Eke) * Piaggio PK500 (rebadged

Eke Pick-up) Aircraft engines (1920–1950) * Piaggio P.VI *

Piaggio P.VII The Piaggio Stella P.VII was the first P series aircraft engine produced by Piaggio Aerospace, Rinaldo Piaggio S.p.A. Based on its experience license-producing the Gnome-Rhône 7K, Piaggio sold the engine to be used on a wide range of Italian airc ...

* Piaggio P.VIII * Piaggio P.IX * Piaggio P.X * Piaggio P.XI * Piaggio P.XII * Piaggio P.XV

Electric scooters

The new

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...

version of the Piaggio MP3 will be equipped with a 125 cc petrol engine and electric motor, which offers about and travels using battery power alone. This machine could be out in 2009. Piaggio/Vespa are also developing hybrid electric scooters. There are two models in the works, based on the popular Vespa LX 50 and the beefier Piaggio X8 125. At the Beijing Motor Show 2021, Piaggio unveiled the brand new electric scooter Piaggio 1. This model was produced in three versione: 1 base, 1+ and 1 Active. The 1 base has a 1.4 kWh and 48V battery, a 1.2 kW engine, a torque of 85 Nm, a maximum speed of 45 km/h (it is therefore approved as a moped) and a range of 55 km. The 1+ version differs in the battery that rises to 2.3 kWh and the autonomy that reaches 100 kilometers. The 1 Active model has the same 2.3 kWh battery, but the engine has a maximum power of 2 kW, the torque goes to 95 Nm and the speed rises to 60 km/h (motorcycle homologation), the average range is 85 km. For all versions the charging times are 6 hours.

References

External links

Piaggio official websitePiaggio Commercial VehiclesPiaggio Museum - Museo Piaggio
{{Authority control Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1884 Italian companies established in 1884 Companies listed on the Borsa Italiana Motorcycle manufacturers of Italy Aircraft manufacturers of Italy Aircraft engine manufacturers of Italy Scooter manufacturers Moped manufacturers Plug-in hybrid vehicles Private equity portfolio companies Companies based in Tuscany Engine manufacturers of Italy Pontedera Motorcycle engine manufacturers