The Piaggio Fly scooter has been brought to India for R&D purpose. The company has imported the scooter to figure out localisation of the product.
We were the first to inform our readers about Piaggio’s plans to launch the Fly scooter in India. We were also the first to inform our readers that Piaggio shelved their plans to launch the Fly scooter in India. The Piaggio Fly was expected to be launched to take advantage of the growing demand of scooters in the country. However, they were finding it difficult to price the Fly aggressively and therefore backed out.
Just recently, Piaggio has imported one unit of the Fly for R&D purpose. The scooter that has been imported has the same engine as the Vespa 125. It is a 125cc LEADER (Low Emission Advanced Engine Range) motor with 3-valves producing close to 10 BHP of power. According to previous reports, the Fly was supposed to get a 2-valve version in an attempt to lower the cost of the scooter. Piaggio might launch the Fly in India soon considering that they have been in the Indian market for a few years now and would have understood the needs of the Indian consumers.
Piaggio already sells the Vespa 125 in India which is priced at quite a premium over its competition. But due to the Vespa’s cult following and its image being of a lifestyle product, it is selling decent well for the price. Recently they introduced new variants of the Vespa in order to increase its appeal and widen the customer base. But this wouldn’t be the case with the Fly scooter because neither does it have a cult following nor does it have a lifestyle product image. So Piaggio would try and price it close to the competition. According to us, Piaggio would price it between Rs. 55-60,000/-.
Piaggio has big plans for the Indian 2-wheeler market but being an Italian company, it’s too slow. The firm plans to bring a 110cc scooter to India in order to compete with the highly popular Honda Activa but the same won’t be launched in the near future. Piaggio is also planning to enter the motorcycle segment with the top-down approach, bringing in a 250cc motorcycle first, followed by affordable commuter bikes later, again the timeline for the same is not known. Will Piaggio grab a considerable market share in India is yet to be seen but going by their current pace, they seem to be too late.
Source – Zauba
