Vespa celebrates 75 years and reaches the extraordinary milestone of 19 million units produced, beginning from the spring of 1946. The Vespa that marks the 19 million is a GTS 300 in 75th Anniversary Special Edition and was assembled in the Pontedera plant, where Vespa has been manufactured uninterrupted since 1946.

Nineteen million Vespas translate into as many stories of guys and girls worldwide who have gained their freedom astride the most beloved two-wheeler in the world. Vespa has accompanied their lives and embodied feelings and the desire for freedom. Because Vespa is part of our culture, it is a protagonist in our lives, in the imagination of many generations of Italians, Europeans, Americans, Africans and Asians. Today, Vespa is one of those rare products that are consistently part of the landscape in our daily lives.

This extraordinary moment arrives as Vespa is experiencing one of the brightest times of its history. Sold in 83 countries on every continent, it is now the most famous and most loved two-wheeled vehicle globally. For some time now, Vespa has far surpassed its function as an easy and elegant means of commuting to become a global brand, a symbol of Italian technology and style, capable of bringing millions of enthusiasts together in its name.

On the dawn of its 75 years, Vespa is more of a global brand than ever, one of the best known “Made in Italy” products, a true citizen of the world that is manufactured out of three production sites: Pontedera, with production destined for Europe, the Americas and all the western markets; Vinh Phuc, in Vietnam, which serves the local market and the Far East, and India, in the ultra-modern Baramati plant, opened in April 2012, where Vespas for the Indian and Nepalese markets are produced.

For its 75th birthday, Vespa introduces a special Vespa 75th series, available for Vespa Primavera (in the 50, 125 and 150 cc engine sizes) and Vespa GTS (in the 125 and 300 cc engine sizes), limitedly to 2021.

The body of Vespa 75th takes on the brand new metallic Giallo 75th colour, designed expressly for this series, reinterprets colours in a modern key that were all the rage in the forties. The number 75 appears on the side panels and front mudguard in a more accentuated shade, creating an elegant tone-on-tone on the front, where the traditional “necktie” is refined in a matte yellow pyrite colour.

A unique history

Vespa was born out of the desire to create an innovative product for individual mobility. First, a “motor scooter” was built on the model of small motorcycles for parachutists and then a prototype that revolutionised the concept that had dominated the classic motorcycling layout until then. A vehicle was created with a stress-bearing body, direct drive, with the gear shift on the handlebar. The classic front fork disappeared in favour of a single-sided swingarm that made tyre changes more straightforward, and, above all, the frame disappeared, replaced by a stress-bearing body capable of protecting the rider from dirt and rumpled clothing. The Vespa design patent filing date is 23 April 1946.

Following WW2, Italy needed to be rebuilt but, partly for this reason, full of ideas, creativity and hope - Vespa represented the joy of living and racing toward the future, and this is why it soon became an icon of freedom and emancipation for guys and girls all over the world. 

Vespa’s values were accompanied throughout the years by a style and technology on the cutting-edge in the decades of its life.

After the years of rebirth, Vespa continued to strengthen its legendary status, fortifying its identity through the decades of economic prosperity and the generational renewal of the sixties. As cars and mass motorisation spread, Vespa offered salvation from traffic, with the versions in the smaller engine sizes catering to the legendary world of youth, which, precisely in those years, was gaining its space in society. And when, in the ‘70s, the signs of a growing ecological awareness arrived, Vespa was the antidote to city pollution, able to zip through traffic and easily find parking.

In the various eras it has seen, Vespa has always represented the cutting-edge of technology. Characterised by a highly advanced stress-bearing body concept, still built entirely out of steel to this day, it marked the evolution of individual mobility. Today, the latest Vespa vehicles, equipped with ecological engines and technical solutions to support modern riding, represent the style synthesis of an evolution that has made Vespa design immortal, ensuring it is an icon of Italian elegance the world over.

The iconic Scooter will be around for many more years and with the electric version available it can easily reach one hundred. So raise a glass to Vespa.