In 1884, Rinaldo Piaggio, aged twenty, founded Piaggio & C. in northern Italy. The company began by manufacturing locomotives, railway carriages, and eventually expanded into marine vessels and aeronautical components. During World War I, Piaggio produced MAS anti-submarine motorboats as well as aeroplanes and seaplanes under licences from Ansaldo, Macchi, Caproni, and Dornier. Between 1937 and 1939 the company achieved twenty-one world records with aircraft and engines built at the Pontedera factory, culminating in the four-engined Piaggio P.108 bomber. Rinaldo Piaggio died in 1938.
After the Pontedera plant was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II, production relocated to the Biella area. The post-war period brought a decisive change in direction. Enrico Piaggio, who inherited management of the company, chose to diversify into affordable civilian transport. The result was the Vespa, designed by aeronautical engineer Corradino D'Ascanio and launched in April 1946. Within ten years more than one million Vespas had been produced, and by 1960 cumulative sales exceeded four million units worldwide.
In 1959 Piaggio came under the control of the Agnelli family, owners of Fiat. In 1969 Piaggio purchased Gilera, one of the oldest European motorcycle manufacturers, founded in 1909, which had accumulated world titles in the Motorcycle World Championship. In 1988 Vespa production passed ten million cumulative units.
A severe financial crisis in the late 1990s and early 2000s saw the company accumulate debts exceeding 577 million euros by end of 2002 against revenues of 945 million euros. In 2003 the IMMSI holding company of the Colaninno family invested 100 million euros in Piaggio, reducing the debt burden and installing Roberto Colaninno as chairman. Under Colaninno's restructuring, the production line was redesigned to allow any Piaggio scooter to be assembled on any line, no workers were made redundant, and the engineering team developed two world firsts in 2004: a gas-electric hybrid scooter and a tilting three-wheeled scooter.
In 2004, Piaggio acquired the Aprilia and Moto Guzzi group, making it the most significant European two-wheeler manufacturer. Derbi, a Spanish brand with eighteen world titles, was acquired in 2001. In 2006 Piaggio was floated on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Through its subsidiary brands, Piaggio has a substantial presence in motorcycle racing history. Gilera, acquired in 1969, had accumulated world titles in the 125 cc class, including a championship won by Manuel Poggiali in 2001 following Gilera's return to the Motorcycle World Championship. Aprilia, acquired as part of the 2004 group purchase, has been one of the most successful manufacturers in the history of the smaller grand prix classes, accumulating numerous world championships across 125 cc and 250 cc categories and subsequently competing in the MotoGP class.
Derbi, another Piaggio-group brand, also contributed world titles in the small-displacement categories of grand prix motorcycle racing. The group's collective racing heritage, spanning multiple brands and decades, represents one of the deepest motorsport pedigrees of any motorcycle manufacturer group in the world.
Piaggio operates six research and development centres and distributes vehicles in more than fifty countries. The Piaggio Ape, a three-wheeled light commercial vehicle first produced in 1948, evolved through multiple iterations and found particular success in Asian markets, with Indian production beginning in 1999. The Piaggio Historical Museum in Pontedera was inaugurated in 2000, housing the company's comprehensive industrial archive.