Piaggio runs the risk of finding a dangerous competitor on its favorite terrain of conquest: France. The challenger on duty is the very autochthonous Peugeot. A difficult challenge, to be played on the subtle balance of two (or three) wheels.
The Pontedera company, which owns the 32% of the Italian market, in fact continues to grow, despite the fact that the crisis always presents itself as a very angled hairpin bend on which to slide. And be surpassed by others. But for now it is not like that, on the contrary. In October in Italy the Piaggio group recorded a +26% in overall market share, driven in particular by scooters (+36%) and also from large-engined motorcycles (+7,3%). He also recently conquered the Russian market, with Piaggio Aero having sold six P.180 aircraft for civil aviation to Jsc Flight, the Italian company's first Russian customer.
Piaggio is also European leader in two-wheelers (28% of the market), and the flagship was, and remains, the France, where Piaggio has always had a large share, sets trends and also has important distribution chains. And gods still impressive numbers. Although the main market is now becoming Asia (66%), the relationship with cousins across the Alps is still solid: at the end of October, considering the entire engine capacity range, Piaggio had sold 50.042 vehicles, equal to a 16,9% two-wheeler market share, up from 16,2% in 2010 and 14,4% in 2009. As regards scooters, the Piaggio group is the absolute leader through the Piaggio, Vespa and Scarabeo brands, with 22,8% of the market share, which becomes 30% if we consider engine capacities from 125 cc upwards.
But the Piaggio–France marriage is not only this. Some limited edition products they were even distributed exclusively for the transalpine market, and never imported into Italy. As in 2010 the Piaggio MP3 "Black Edition" 400, produced in only 500 units sold in France for 8.299 euros.
But to understand even better we need to go back to the distant past 1956, when commissioned by the French Ministry of Defence, Acma (a sort of French branch of Piaggio established from 1949 to 1962 to avoid customs duties) produced the "Vespa 150 TAP"; a curious parachuting anti-tank vehicle.
In the following year the production of the only microcar built by Piaggio began, namely the ACMA Vespa 400, intended only for the French market and never imported into Italy.
And now the motor company controlled by Colaninno, 60 years later, is about to launch the new Vespa 46, which is not Valentino Rossi's number but one reissue of the first post-war model and the official presentation will take place right at Paris Salon.
And after all this? As always, in weddings it takes two. And the third wheel can always come to ruin a ten-year love story. Is called "Metropolis", is the new three-wheeler from the very French Peugeot scooters (fourth European manufacturer), which has just announced a new industrial plan (complete with 200 redundancies) to get out of the crisis (-40% since 2007) and is betting everything on the new jewel to launch the challenge to the Italian Piaggio.
Italian-French marriages and divorces.
