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Origin of Scooters |
| Necessity they say is the mother of all inventions, as the scooter emerged out of a necessity of transport rather than anything else after the Second World War. Though the traces of scooters can be found in the United States of America, it was in Italy that these wonderful set of two-wheelers got a new lease of life. Italy was ravaged after the Second World War, their roads were destroyed and transportation system was in a mess. The need of the hour was an afFordable transportation system which the Italians could use to
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maneuver the war ravaged roads without digging a hole in their pockets.
Guess who came to the rescue!
An Italian company Piaggio who were into the manufacturing business, and had aircrafts in their portfolio. So a company which was into manufacturing huge machines actually thought small and it really clicked.
Enrico Piaggio, the founder's son, realized the need for an afFordable form of transport and entrusted the responsibility of developing such a vehicle to Corradino D'Ascanio who is credited with inventing the helicopter.
D' Ascanio utilized all his experience in flying to prepare a set of two-wheels which though could not fly by itself, surely had all the thrills attached with flying. D' Ascanio created a single chassis two-wheeler and showed it to Enrico Piaggio who felt that it looked like a wasp (Vespa in Italian and hence the name).
Thus it preformed dual purpose it looked good and also provided a reliable form of transportation, it provided the riders a feel of the air, a sense of speed and thrill. The first Vespa was manufactured in 1946 and with in a decade or so it was being exported to other European countries.
However Vespa was not unscathed for competition, it was the vision of another legendary entrepreneur Ferdinando Inocennti that led to the creation of the Lambretta. He was also appalled at the situation in which his country was after the World War II and like Enrico Piaggio; he also felt the urgent need of a two-wheeler which could provide the necessary protection from the weather unlike a motorcycle and maneuver the war torn streets of Italy.
They came out with a product called Lambretta A which among other things was a very fuel efficient scooter. Lambretta was very similar in design to the Vespa and both the scooters continued to rule the roost, till the Japanese arrived in the mid 1980's.
The Japanese models were sleek in design and their engines were environment friendly enough to meet the stricter emission norms.
India also has a rich tradition of scooters in the country and was not to be left out in the scooter race, the Lambretta brand was acquired by the Indian Government and it was rechristened as scooters India Limited. The company started producing scooters with in two years by using the Inocennti Machinery. The company manufactured the first scooter in the country called Vijai Super and thus India's love story for the scooters began.
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