Since posting its last set of quarterly results, Piaggio has entered into a € 60m euro loan underwritten to the tune of € 30m each by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Banca MPS). The company says that the new credit line will "support investments in research, development and innovation, and will further strengthen the Group's financial structure".
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| Bradley Smith and Lorenzo Savadori trying to break the RS 660 at Misano. |
In additional Group news, Vespa Elettrica has been recognised with an "honourable mention" at the 26th edition of the Compasso d’Oro, described by Piaggio as "the world’s most authoritative design award".
Established in 1954, the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award "is the oldest and most authoritative global award in design, resulting from an idea of Gio Ponti to highlight the value and quality of Italian design. Since 1964, the ADI (Association for Industrial Design) has organised the award, monitoring its impartiality and integrity. The close to three hundred projects to receive an award in more than fifty years since it was established, along with almost two thousand selected for Honourable Mention, have been collected and are kept in the Historic Collection of the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award, which is managed by the ADI Foundation.
The Piaggio Group had been honoured with the Compasso d’Oro award in the ’90s and with an Honourable Mention with the Vespa 946 in 2016.
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| Vespa Elettrica is available in a 45 km/h version, designed strictly for urban use, and therefore homologated as a moped, and in a 70 km/h version. |
Aprilia MotoGP riders Aleix Espargaro, Bradley Smith and Lorenzo Savadori were on the track ahead of the second MotoGP race held at Misano in September, testing the highly anticipated RS 660 - to their universal collective approval.
The new medium engine capacity sport bike will go into production in October and marks the beginning of a new era for Aprilia as the first model of a new generation of lightweight, high- performance medium engine capacity bikes supported by the electronics and technology of the Aprilia Racing department - it is said to have an "outstanding" weight/power ratio of 169 kg for 100 hp.
The new aluminium twin spar frame uses the engine as a load bearing element and is said to maintain the Aprilia reputation for being able to build "superb chassis architecture". The RS 660 is built around a new engine - a compact and lightweight parallel twin with dual overhead cam distribution and 4 valves per cylinder that has been derived from the front bank of the 1,100 cc V4.
