Vespa
75 YEARS AN ICON
Client
Vespa
Services
- PR AND INFLUENCERS RELATIONS BENELUX
These are 19 million stories of girls and boys, from entire generations, who dreamed in the saddle of their Vespa and found their freedom. Today Vespa is a myth that has long ceased to be just an easy and elegant means of transport for the commuter, but has become an icon of style, fashion and design. Vespa is a global brand, present in 83 countries and on all continents, which is experiencing one of the most important periods in its history and, without renouncing its values, manages to renew itself in order to always remain young, contemporary and inimitable.
75 YEARS AND 19 MILLION SCOOTERS PRODUCED
Vespa celebrates its 75th anniversary, reaching the extraordinary milestone of 19 million units produced since the spring of 1946. The Vespa celebrating the 19 million is a GTS 300 in 75th Anniversary Special Edition assembled at the Pontedera factory, where the Vespa has been in continuous production since 1946.
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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A UNIQUE HISTORY
Vespa is the result of the search for an innovative product for individual mobility. First, a “motor scooter” is built on the model of the small motorcycles for paratroopers. What follows is a prototype that overturns the hitherto dominant concept of the classic motorcycle scheme. This creates a direct-drive vehicle with a self-supporting body and steering gear. The classic front fork disappears in favor of a single arm that makes it easier to replace the wheel and, above all, the frame is replaced by a self-supporting body that protects the driver and prevents them from getting dirty and crumpling their clothes. The patent for the Vespa design is applied for on April 23, 1946.
- 1948. The Vespa 125 cc model is presented.
- 1949. The Unione Italiana Vespa Riders, comprising 30 clubs, is founded and holds its first congress.
- 1950. Vespa starts production in Germany with a license agreement with Hoffman-Werke.
- 1951. Vespa starts production in the United Kingdom under license to Douglas of Bristol and in France with ACMA of Paris.
- 1952. European Vespa Club is founded in Milan to unite the clubs in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. All over the world, Vespa Clubs have more than 50,000 members. There are more than 10,000 Vespa service stations around the world.
- 1953. Vespa 125 is immortalized in the film Roman Holiday by William Wyler met Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.
- 1955. Vespa GS is the most elegant scooter ever built and a turning point for the Vespa, faster than 100 km / h for the first time, mounting 4 gears and 10-inch wheels for the first time.
- 1964. Presentation of the Vespino, or the Vespa with a cylinder capacity of 50cc.
- 1965. More than 3.5 million Vespas have been sold.
- 1968. The campaign “Chi Vespa mangia le mele” revolutionizes the advertising world.
- 1968. Vespa Primavera is one of the longest living Vespa models and the means of transport of the new generations in all of Europe.
- 1976. Vespa Primavera 125 – ET3 is the first scooter with electronic ignition.
- 1978. The Vespa PX is presented with the three “classic” cylinder sizes 125, 150 and 200 cc. It will become more than 3 million units of the best-selling model in Vespa history.
- 1980. Four Vespa PXs take part in the Paris-Dakar, the most epic and grueling rally in the world. Unbelievable but true: one of them, driven by Marc Simonot, makes it to the finish.
- 1984. The Vespa PK 125 Automatica is the first Vespa with an automatic gearbox.
- 1988. More than 10 million Vespas have been sold.
- 1992. Giorgio Bettinelli, writer and journalist, leaves Rome on a Vespa and arrives in Saigon in March 1993. He repeats himself several times: in 1994-95, still on a Vespa, he rides 36,000 kilometers from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Beginning in Melbourne, Australia in 1995-96, arriving in Cape Town after twelve months and over 32,000 miles. In 1997 he traveled 144,000 kilometers from Chile to Tasmania, via the Americas, Siberia, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It takes him three years and eight months and visits 90 countries. In total, he covers more than 250,000 kilometers on a Vespa.
- 1996. The new generation of Vespa is presented with the ET4 125 cc model. Vespa uses a 4-stroke engine with automatic gearbox for the first time.
- 1996. More than 15 million Vespas have been sold.
- 1997. The Vespa ET2 (50 cc) is launched.
- 1998. The Vespa PX, the best-selling scooter model in the world (more than two million units since its launch), is restyled and gets a disc brake beforehand.
- 2000. The Vespa returns to the American market.
- 2003. The Vespone returns with the Vespa GT 125 and Vespa GT 200.
- 2005. With the Vespa LX we see the comeback of the more classic lines of Vespa.
- 2006. Vespa celebrates its 60th birthday with the spectacular special Vespa 60 ° in the colors and style of the first Vespas.
- 2008. The Vespa 300 GTS Super is the sportiest and most performing model ever.
- 2011. The Vespa 946 is the most exclusive model and the embodiment of aesthetic and technological perfection. The name refers to the year of birth – 1946 – of the scooter that symbolizes Italian elegance.
- 2013. The return of the legendary Vespa Primavera with cylinder capacities of 50, 125 and 150 cc renews the myth of the Vespino.
- 2018. The Vespa Elettrica is a contemporary work of art with a technological heart and is destined to change the mobility panorama. Built entirely in Pontedera, this scooter is silent and easy to drive, expressing the revolutionary and contemporary soul of a brand that has always been ahead of its time and has always remained innovative and true to its style and technology values.
- 2021. Vespa reaches 19 million units produced and celebrates its 75th anniversary with the special Vespa 75th series that brings new elegance to the GTS and Primavera families.
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