Showing posts with label Piaggio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Piaggio. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Will Piaggio’s aspirational Vespa scooter see a bumpy ride?
Nowadays, scooters have lost their charm, but at such a moment, Italian two-wheeler major Piaggio is planning to ride into the Indian market with its iconic Vespa and this time with an “aspirational” scooter, which may witness a bumpy ride in India.
The Italian company, which is one of the leading two-wheeler makers in Europe, is not new to India and already has past experience in the country’s market with tie-ups with LML and Bajaj.
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| Piaggio new Vespa. |
The company has priced its scooter above Rs 66,500, which is even higher than many motorcycles.
Scooters are a dying product and the first to realize this was Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj.
The pricing of the Vespa is much higher than products of competitors like Suzuki and Honda.
Scooters are a dying product and the first to realize this was Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj.
The pricing of the Vespa is much higher than products of competitors like Suzuki and Honda.
For instance, Honda sells its popular 110 cc Activa scooter model for Rs 47,945 while Suzuki’s 125 cc Access is priced at Rs 47,774. In contrast, Vespa is almost Rs 20,000 steeper.
In a price-sensitive market like India, products like motorcycles and scooters are usually brought by the vast middle class. This segment is a highly price-sensitive one and the big question is will a scooter priced such steeply be welcomed by the public?
“We plan to create a premium luxury segment in scooters. We want to fulfill needs of the brand conscious and fashion conscious Indians, who want to make a lifestyle statement by acquiring distinctive and exclusive products,” Piaggio India chairman and managing director Ravi Chopra said.
The Italian company, which will roll out more two-wheelers including motorcycles, wants to position the Vespa for cities and will set up 50 dealerships across 35 cities.
“We are making the Vespa at our factory in Baramati, Maharashtra, which has a capacity of 1.5 lakh units. Production will be doubled to around three lakh units by the middle of next year, which will take our two-wheeler investments to over euro 50 million,” Chopra said.
Piaggio has a scooter and motorcycle model line-up ranging between 50 cc and 1,400 cc and its brands include Aprilia, Derbi, Gilera and Moto Guzzi.
“The idea with the Vespa is to create an aspirational brand and not just play on the price point,” Chopra added.
So, with such ambitious plans of ramping up dealership network, Piaggio could water it down with such high pricing since not many are likely to make a beeline for premium scooters (in contrast to premium bikes).
Scooter sales in India surged 25% to 25 lakh units in the year till March, trumping a 12% rise in motorcycle sales. Scooters are more of a semi-urban and rural products than an urban one.
The plan of creating an aspirational segment in scooters may be a flawed one as no one really (especially in towns) would want to opt for an expensive scooter, and if Piaggio doesn’t realize this, it may witness a bumpy ride in India.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Piaggio to bring back Vespa, roll out superbike Aprilia
Although scooters have lost their sheen in India, Piaggio has decided to bring back the Vespa brand with the LX 125 scooter, which is slated for launch early next year, and the company's superbike, the Aprilia RSV4, will roll out even sooner.
This is Piaggio’s third stint in India. During its first entry, Piaggio licensed production of Vespa scooters to Bajaj in the 1960s.
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| The Aprilia RSV4 superbike |
In 1971, Piaggio’s licence was not renewed by the Central government, prompting the Italian company to tie up with Lohia Machinery Limited (LML) Motors in 1983.
But the partnership ended in 1999 after prolonged disputes between the two companies.
Currently, LML is engaged in making light commercial vehicles, one of them being the Ape. The Vespa was a highly popular brand worldwide and had registered sales of 17 million till 2010.
Piagio is still bullish on the Indian market, and now, it plans to set up a new facility in Baramati, near Pune soon and will pump in euro 30 million to manufacture scooters.
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| The New Vespa |
Piaggio Vehicles chairman and managing director Ravi Chopra said, “Our new Vespa LX 125 will be launched in India by early 2012 and be made at our new facility in Baramati.
The scooter unit will have a capacity to manufacture 1.5 lakh units per annum.
The nascent but burgeoning market for high-end motorcycles has also prompted the Italian two-wheeler giant to launch its Aprilia RSV4 superbike soon.
But the company refused to divulge plans as to when it would be launched. Piaggio also remained tightlipped about the price of the Vespa or the RSV4.
Piaggio has seven brands of scooters, motorcycles and small commercial vehicles under its stable and the premium Aprilia bike range will come in as imports. Car experts feel that initially these motorcycles could command prices ranging from Rs 13 lakh to Rs 18 lakh.
The Aprilia RSV4 has a 999.6cc 65 degree V4 engine that pumps 180 bhp. The bike comes with a string of hi-tech systems such as ride-by-wire multi-map system, a sophisticated electronic injection system with two injectors and adjustable geometry chassis.
Piaggio India, which has around 760 sales points, is also infusing euro 60 million to manufacture petrol and diesel engines in Baramati. “We hope to make 50,000 diesel engines and about a lakh petrol engines in a year,” Chopra said.
Piaggio Vehicles is holding parleys with General Motors for supplying 1.2 litre turbo jet diesel engines for the car maker’s upcoming light commercial vehicles (LCVs).
The one-litre diesel engines are being used by the Italian firm’s small LCV – the Ape mini. The petrol engines will be utilised for the company’s two-wheelers.
Superbike sales are slated to grow 50 per cent in the near term and could actually rev up to around 100 per cent in the medium to long term.
Piaggio will have to undertake an ad blitz to see that its superbikes find place in the Indian market as the company is not a known motorcycle brand in India, and for its scooter, the Italian major could see an interest for the Vespa even though the going may be tough as the scooter market in India has shrunk substantially.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Can Piaggio’s tiny NT3 take on small car Nano?
Can Piaggio’s tiny (or micro) car, the NT3, vie with Tata Motors iconic small car, the Nano? Although the prices could be similar, the size may put these cars in two discrete categories altogether. Piaggio, the Italian scooter and three-wheeler giant, unveiled the NT3 at the Milan Motorcycle Show recently.
The NT3 is far smaller than the Tata Nano, has three seats, with the driver’s position placed right at the centre. It is just 2.4 metres long, making it easy to park on the crowded city roads. In contrast, the Nano’s length is almost 31 metres.
The car is likely to have 200 or 300 cc engine and could seat three passengers. In comparison, the Nano, has an over 600 cc engine and can seat up to five passengers. The NT3 is likely to be priced nearly Rs 1.5 lakh and the latest buzz is that it will roll out from the Baramati plant near Pune from where Piaggio’s cargo and passenger three-wheelers along with the new four-wheeler mini pick-up are manufactured.
The NT3, with the 200cc engine, will have a maximum speed of 60 km/hour while the 300 cc one will come with a maximum speed of 80km/hour. This variant could be a hybrid car and the company is believed to be mulling an electric motor in future.
The NT3 is based on the Ape platform and Piaggio’s sources have revealed that the car could roll out within three years.
Ravi Chopra, chairman and managing director of Piaggio India, said from Milan, “This marks the first phase of innovation. The next step would be to work on cost-effective manufacturing technologies to make the NT3 competitive. The third phase will involve retail and brand strategies.”
Will the Piaggio NT3 be able to eat into the Nano’s market which is already facing pressure, forcing Tata Motors to buy (exchange) two-wheelers to keep the small car’s sales ticking? Tata’s iconic small car (Nano) sales failed to pick up even during the festive season and only 3,000 units rolled out in the last one month. However, the motorcycles market is sizzling. For instance, in October Suzuki Motorcycle India registered a mind-blowing 60.51 per cent growth in sales at 25,439 units against 15,849 units in October 2009.
So, if the above figures are anything to go by, the Piaggio NT3 is unlikely to dent the bikes market and even if it eats into Tata Nano’s sales, it is unlikely to take the roads by storm or shore up the earnings of Piaggio India substantially. Moreover, although parking and manoeuvring will be easy, the Piaggio NT3 may make its driver feel lost on India’s inundated roads, forcing car buffs to stay away.
But the European countries could lap it up as it has an inclination for small cars (in contrast to the US market where small cars hardly find a place).
On the flip side though, the Piaggio NT3 is expected to be a low-consumption, low-polluting car that can offer a fuel efficiency of over 30km/litre. So, which way will buyers go?
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