Aprilia got its start in 1945 when Alberto Beggio built a bicycle production factory in Italy. Under Alberto’s leadership the company prospered. In 1968 Alberto passed leadership of the company to his son Ivano who embraced the future and developed a 50 cc motorcycle. This led to the eventual development of the Colibri, Daniela and Packi mopeds.
Alberto had an obvious desire for speed and power. Aprilia began producing the Scarabeo, its first motocross bike that was available in a 50cc and a 125cc version. By the end of the 1970s Aprilia was producing an assortment of fast and powerful motorcycles topping out at 600cc.
It wasn’t until 1990 that Aprilia entered the scooter market with the Amico scooter, an all plastic scooter. Additional developments were made to the scooters by adding catalytic converters and four-stroke engines.
In 1977, Aprilia motorcycles began winning races. Aprilia excelled on the race track and the wins began to stack up. In 2010 Aprilia achieved 276 wins becoming the world’s most successful motorcycle racing brand.
Piaggio acquired Aprilia in 2004 forming the world’s fourth largest motorcycle group with a production capacity of over 600,000 vehicles annually. Today, Ivano is still with Aprilia serving as the honourary president and produce a range of on-road and off-road motorcycles and over a dozen different scooters.
