Piaggio
Mopeds and commercial vehicles
The Piaggio & C was founded in Genoa in 1887, founded by Rinaldo Piaggio after the exit of the company of his father Enrico. The company, based in Sestri Ponente, produces naval furniture. In 1889 Attilio Odero joined the company and Piaggio made its debut in the railway sector. A new workshop is acquired in Finale Marina.
In 1920 a new corporate structure for Piaggio, with Chairman of the company Attilio Odero and Chief Executive Officer Rinaldo Piaggio. Rinaldo Piaggio is firmly determined to develop the aeronautical sector with the design of a first prototype Rondine aircraft.
The next step registers the affirmation of Piaggio in Tuscany: 1917 in Pisa, 1924 in Pontedera. The world war finds the company among the most important European groups in the field of aeronautical and railway constructions, in the furnishing of steamboats and transatlantic ones. Piaggio starts producing almost everything for the transport sector: cableways, funiculars, trailers, tramways, trucks, trolley buses.
In 1398, at the death of Rinaldo, he succeeded him in the role of Chief Executive Officer. Armando takes care of the production units of Genoa-Sestri and Finale Ligure, mainly dedicated to aeronautics and railway, while Enrico is dedicated to the plants of Pisa and Pontedera.
Enrico has an ambitious project, contributing to the motorization of the Italian population by creating a simple, low-cost vehicle. In 1946, using the collaboration of Corradino D'Ascanio, a brilliant aeronautical designer (who is responsible for the design of the first modern helicopter), the first prototype of the Vespa was born, in the Pontedera plant and is immediately marketed.
The success is huge, unprecedented: in ten years, around one million specimens are produced and foreign markets are opened.
In 1948 the Ape marks the success in the field of goods transport vehicles: Vespa and Ape are a splendid combination that characterizes the years of Italian and world reconstruction after the Second World War.
In the mid-sixties Piaggio inaugurated the moped season: Ciao, Bravo and Sì are some models with a light and elegant line that conquer young people. From the Vespa of 1946 to the Beverly of 2001 there are over one hundred models of scooters designed and disseminated, representation of creativity and manageriality of generations of men and women who wrote the history of the company and with it the social and civil economic history of our territory.
