IN PICS: Roman Holiday's Vespa comes to India

After a long hiatus Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. - the makers of the romantic Vespa Scooters - is making a comeback in India. Vespa LX125, country's first style-of-living scooter offering, is all set to dazzle on the Indian roads in next couple of months.

Think of Vespa scooters and a romance shoots to mind instantly. The love story dates back to 1953 when the ever-beautiful Audrey Hepburn enticed Gregory Peck with her cheerful attitude.

The princess on her Vespa not only made Peck fall in love with her, but also all the audience too. What went a bit lesser noticed than Hepburn was the Vespa scooter that she rode all along. The scene with Hepburn riding the Vespa scoot in the cobbled streets of Rome in Roman Holiday, Peck being seductively falling in love with her brought the instant and forever fame to Hepburn and the scoot got embedded in the minds for forever too!

Since then almost half a century has passed. In between, we in India too had our share of romance on the scoots by Vespa.

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The fire that the sweet-looking scooter had kindled back then could not ever die, even though Piaggio had withdrawn from our country. Now here comes some good news for Vespa lovers! Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., the Italian three- and two-wheeler producer is all set to re-enter the Indian scooter market.

The auto major will introduce its Vespa brand in Indian automotive industry which was there in India a decade before. The scooter manufacturing company is getting back in India, this time, totally on its own. Earlier Vespa had merged with Bajaj Auto in 1960s and later on with LML in the '80s.

Those were the days when a car was affordable only by the few lucky people who could afford the luxury, but Vespa brought in its scoots at a rate that almost everyone could easily buy it, along with having some tagged at higher rates too. This time around, Vespa comes in with a change of thought.

The scoots will now supposedly be a luxury product. The new venture, as per the reports, will be casted in Baramati, a plant that will have an initial capacity of producing 1.5 lakh units per annum at a total investment of around Rs 200 crore.

Vespa LX125, country's first style-of-living scooter offering, is all set to sizzle Indian roads in next couple of months.

It is speculated that Vespa LX125 will house a four-stroke 125cc engine coupled with an automatic CVT transmission system. The engine develops 10.7 bhp of top power and 9.6 Nm of peak torque.

Reportedly, the first batch of Vespa LX125, in white shade, has already been developed at its Baramati production unit and is ready to be addressed to the Vespa dealership outlets across India. It is expected that Vespa LX125 automatic will adorn various features that would further enhances its appeal and position it as a lifestyle scooter offering.

The exact price details of Vespa LX125 is yet behind curtains, but it is likely to be priced somewhere in the range of Rs 58,000 to Rs 65,000.

The classy scooter comes affixed with a chrome strip on mudguard on front body which gives it an appealing look. The instrumentation console is integrated with a digital clock that further improves its utility and functionality. Rubber foot strips on floor, range of shades makes it more attractive. Three spoke wheels offer a sportier look.

After observing the consumers' response on the first lifestyle scooter, Vespa LX125, Piaggio India could introduce more lifestyle scooters. The Italian auto biggie also plans to bring its iconic Italian motorcycle brand, Moto Guzzi, to India in the near future.

The company is giving final touches to its first 50 dealership showrooms across 35 Indian cities. Piaggio India will also add over 100 new outlets by next 2 years.

India two-wheeler industry, world's second largest market of two wheelers, is attracting every two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. Almost all the globally recognised bike or two-wheeler manufacturers have introduced their vehicles in India.

In the last six months, scooter segment registered a tremendous growth which shoots on to be higher than the motorcycle segment. Companies like Honda and TVS dominate Indian scooter segment.

With the entry of Piaggio, the competition level becomes tougher and consumers will surely have reliable, sporty and value-for-money scooters.