Piaggio has tied its belt to change its image from a producer of mere crude diesel engine powered commercial vehicles to powerful, cleaner and fuel-efficient vehicles. To reach the target, company has employed twin-cylinder 1.2-litre turbocharged diesel engine equipped with diesel particulates filter (DPF) variant which is manufactured in the European market. But this variant will not be available in Indian markets. In place of that, 1.2-litre diesel engine is used keeping in mind the cost conscious customers of India.

The existing model of Piaggio in Indian market is Ape CVs which will be powered by BS IV compliant diesel engine. With the help of this strong and technologically advanced engine, the car will get great power and enhanced fuel efficiency. The hit shot of this engine lies with the fact that it will emit very low CO2 in environment which will help the car enter among low emission cars.

While pointing at the great collaboration of Ricardo and Piaggio, Ian Penny who is the director of engine engineering, Ricardo commented that the exclusive two-cylinder diesel offers Euro5 compliance for the first time in world and also assures a low cost architecture for products base on Indian customers. He praised the high end engineering used in manufacturing this world class environment friendly engine.

Piaggio in early Nov 2010 its plans to soon launch three-seat city-car in the Indian auto markets which will appear by late-2013. This launch will be named as NT3 which will be a direct competitor to small wonder Tata Nano, new sub-600cc Maruti which is code named as YE3, the upcoming Hyundai Ha with 800cc displacement and price of Rs 2- 3lakh. The NT3 model is manufactured on the basic concept of Piaggio’s three-wheel Ape which is considered to be a classic three-wheel commercial pick-up and van. The model will have engine choices of 200cc or 300cc.