Official: Piaggio India drops price of the Vespa LX125 automatic scooter to stem slow sales
After unveiling it at last year’s Indian Auto Expo amidst much acclaim, Piaggio India launched the Vespa LX125 automatic scooter in India during April of last year. Ever since, about 25,000 Vespa LX125s have been sold in the country, a figure that makes for a fraction of automatic scooter sales in India. The automatic scooter segment is the hottest segment in the Indian two wheeler market, with yearly growth levels being much higher than motorcycles. This has prompted a slew of two wheeler makers to jump onto the automatic scooter brigade in India and Piaggio is one of them.
2013 Piaggio Vespa LX125 Automatic Scooter
While the rest of the automatic scooter makers like market leader Honda, Yamaha, TVS Motors, Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp operate in the mass market segment, Piaggio India chose to play it differently, by positioning the Vespa LX125 as a lifestyle scooter. The initial ex-showroom price of the Vespa LX125, at INR 66,000, meant that the automatic scooter found few buyers. Most buyers, while enthused by the Vespa LX125′s retro styling and all-metal body were put off by the steep pricing. Given that the Vespa LX125 didn’t justify its high price and lifestyle positioning with enough features, the scooter’s novelty value wore off quickly.
For instance, the Vespa LX125 doesn’t come with a front disc brake and tubeless tyres despite its high price tag, stuff that the competition offers at a much lower price. To spur sales, Piaggio India began offering discounts on the Vespa LX125, beginning from last year’s festive season of Dusshera. Now though, Piaggio India has officially dropped prices of the Vespa LX125. The automatic scooter is now priced at INR 59,960 ex-showroom Bangalore, a price drop of about INR 6,700. This price drop is expected to make the Vespa LX125 more attractive to prospective buyers.
The Vespa LX125 automatic scooter is powered by a 125cc four stroke engine featuring a 3 valve head. This engine outputs a peak power of 10 Bhp while peak torque is rated at 10.6 Nm. The Vespa LX125′s major selling point, apart from its evocative retro styling, is its monocoque steel body, which endows the scooter with a tough-rattle free build quality. Now that Piaggio India has dropped prices of the Vespa LX125, it remains to be seen whether sales pick up. If they don’t, the Vespa LX125 will join the ranks of the Kinetic Blaze 165, as yet another lifestyle scooter that didn’t find enough takers in India. So, we’ll be watching the sales figures of the Vespa LX125 closely as this scooter’s performance could have a bearing on other scooter makers’ decision to launch lifestyle automatic scooters in India.
Source WheelsUnplugged
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5 Responses to “Official: Piaggio India drops price of the Vespa LX125 automatic scooter to stem slow sales”
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You really don’t like Vespa, don’t you? ;-) Never mind… last time I saw the Vespa sales was higher than the Suzuki Swish and the Mahindra models.
Dear Mat,
I don’t like the Indian customer being fleeced.
Cheers,
Jay
Dear Jay,
Now thats a judgement. Please make it clear while writing articles. (I don’t like poor articles either!)
Study the sales figures please when you make claims about sales.
Cheers!
Mat
Dear Mat,
Thank you for your feedback. By the way, who told you that the Vespa has outsold the Access? The Mahindras don’t sell owing to poor quality/mileage levels. FYI, even Mahindra’s scooter range(taken as a whole) outsells the Vespa LX125.
Cheers,
Jay
Jai, I am very happy on your reply.Frankly speaking, I feel vespa is a over priced monster, and I wonder where Mat has found out that Vespa is selling more than Suzuki Swish.
Regarding Kinetic Blaze, please tell me which vechicle of Kinetic was a success. In the initial stages, KIHO was selling because there was no competition, but when Activa arrived it was slow death for Kinetic.