The Vespa: How a Wasp-Named Scooter Began in 1946

The Vespa was a small Italian scooter designed by an aeronautical engineer, Corradino D'Ascanio, for the Piaggio company. Piaggio filed its patent on 23 April 1946, and the scooter went on to sell by the million. This article covers how the design came about, what made it different and how it spread, including to India.

From prototype to patent

According to Wikipedia, Piaggio engineers Renzo Spolti and Vittorio Casini built a prototype called the MP5, nicknamed Paperino, in 1944. Enrico Piaggio did not like its tall central section, so he hired D'Ascanio to redesign it.

Italy Heritage describes D'Ascanio as an aeronautical engineer who disliked motorcycles. It says he found them awkward, dirty and hard to repair after a puncture. It reports that he developed the first project in only a few days.

What D'Ascanio changed

Wikipedia says D'Ascanio's MP6 put the engine beside the rear wheel and drove the wheel directly, removing the drive chain. It had a step-through frame, and the body panels were part of the structure. Italy Heritage adds that the gearbox was moved to the handlebars and that, instead of an ordinary front fork, D'Ascanio used a supporting arm similar to aircraft landing gear, which made wheel changes easier.

• No chain, so less grease and fewer parts to wear.
• A low, flat floor, so a rider could step through without swinging a leg over.
• Bodywork that shields the rider from dirt.
• A single-sided front arm that eases wheel changes.

The production scooter had a 98 cc two-stroke engine, enclosed and cooled by a fan on the flywheel, Wikipedia reports.

How it got its name

Both sources tell the same story. Enrico Piaggio saw the MP6 and said it looked like a wasp, "Sembra una vespa", and the name stuck. Vespa is Italian for wasp.

Launch dates

Sources agree that the patent was filed on 23 April 1946; Italy Heritage places this in Florence. Wikipedia says the scooter appeared in spring 1946 and was shown at the Milan Fair that year. It also says the first fifty sold slowly until Piaggio introduced instalment payments. Other web sources give different dates for the first public presentation, so the exact day is not settled across sources.

Sales growth

Wikipedia gives these approximate figures: about 2,500 Vespas in 1947, over 10,000 in 1948, 20,000 in 1949 and over 60,000 in 1950. Italy Heritage reports that the one-millionth Vespa was made in June 1956.

Film and culture

In the 1953 film Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn's character rides on the back of a Vespa driven by Gregory Peck's. Wikipedia credits the film with a large boost to sales and gives a figure of over 100,000, though that is one source's claim. Italy Heritage says the scooter became a symbol of freedom and Italian style, that it has been shown at the Guggenheim museums and that it is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Foreign newspapers, including The Times, praised it as a distinctly Italian product, the same source says, even though some specialists at first dismissed it as a jalopy.

Competition and licences

Innocenti's Lambretta was a rival scooter brand, according to Wikipedia. Piaggio also let other companies build Vespas under licence.

The Indian story

Wikipedia reports that Bajaj Auto licensed Vespa production in the 1960s. The licence was not renewed in 1971, but Bajaj kept building its own Chetak scooter. LML formed a joint venture with Piaggio in 1983 to make P-Series scooters and bought back Piaggio's stake in 1999. Piaggio returned to India at the 2012 Auto Expo without a local partner.

Sources

• Vespa, Wikipedia
• The history of Vespa, an Italian icon, Italy Heritage