Piaggio to launch mid-segment Aprilia bike

“We are working on a global motorcycle project that will be focused on all the countries where we have our factories that includes Italy, Vietnam, Indonesia and China,” Davide Zanolini executive vice president global marketing and communication, Piaggio Group and chief marketing officer at Piaggio Fast Forward (the entity with the group that focuses on technology and design) said.

A fast-evolving motorcycle market in the emerging and developed countries of the world has prompted Piaggio to get into the segment, he added.

The Aprilia motorcycles targeted at the “affordable performance segment,” are being jointly developed by Piaggio’s R&D team in Italy, India and the rest of Asia, he said. The production and launch plans of the motorcycle will be finalised in the later part of the year. Founded after World War II, the Aprilia brand is no stranger to those in the motorcycle racing circuits.

“The mid-segment of the motorcycle market is quite promising and motorcycles like these are more suitable for markets like India,” said Diego Graffi, chairman and managing director, Piaggio Vehicles India. The high displacement bikes have their limitations, he added.

The new model will conform to the company’s core positioning of being niche and premium much like Vespa and Aprilia brand of scooters it sells in India, he added. Graffi expects the mid-size of the motorcycle market to be 50,000-60,000 units per annum and expects it to expand and grow consistently in the next 5 years.

Meanwhile, Piaggio, which has been selling the Vespa brand of scooters in India since 2012, is in no hurry to ride on the electric bandwagon. Graffi believes the fast-paced growth is mainly government incentive-driven and will not sustain the momentum once the subsidy tap runs dry. The e-two-wheeler market is estimated to close FY22-23 with 800,000 units, he said. “The explosion in the market is mostly incentive driven. There’s no clarity beyond March 2024 regarding the continuation of the FAME incentives. What’s going to happen to all the high-speed scooters?”

According to him Piaggio has created new segments and created the concept of segmentation within the scooter market with its brands.

Even though Piaggio has strong DNA in EVs at the group level and electric engine is key to the group’s strategy in the future it won’t get into the segment till it’s able to develop a model that is both affordable and efficient. “We don’t want to be there just for the sake of it.” In the intervening period, till it’s ready to launch e-two wheelers, Piaggio will continue to make its existing products more efficient and contemporary, he said. The launch of the new generation Vespa with a new engine next month is part of that plan.

Most battered by the pandemic and regulation and inflationary trend, Graffi doesn’t expect the two-wheeler market (internal combustion engine powered), particularly the scooter market, to reach the pre-pandemic levels for another couple of years.