The Piaggio Group's Advanced Design Center, part of the 130-year-old Italian motor vehicle company, is located in an airy top floor studio overlooking Pasadena Old Town in California. There are exposed brick walls and chic Italian furnishings, but oddly enough, no showroom full of Vespa scooters or Moto Guzzi motorbikes. But there is an Italian restaurant so designers don't have to go far for a decent cappuccino and a service elevator to sneak out concept vehicles and do stealth test runs in the alley behind.

Heading up the center is designer Miguel Galluzzi, celebrated for creating the Ducati Monster, Aprilia RSV4, Cagiva Raptor, and re-imagined Moto Guzzi California 1400. The Argentina native was educated at California's ArtCenter College of Design, traveled extensively in Asia, and based in Italy for many years before returning to L.A. in 2012 to set up the Piaggio Advanced Design Center.

PCMag went to Pasadena to learn why Galluzzi believes two wheels are better than one, how Northern Vietnam's usage of scooters made him think differently about the future, and why he doesn't believe motorbikes will become autonomous anytime soon. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our conversation.

So Miguel, do you believe two wheels are better than four?

[Laughs] Yeah, I do. For many things, they are.

In many cities around the world two wheels are the only way to weave through insane traffic.

Exactly. Listen, I've been involved in the world of two-wheeled vehicles—motorcycles, mostly—since 1967, when I was 8 years old, caught up in the passion for riding and racing. There are many advantages for two-wheeled vehicles, and Piaggio has been in this business for a very long time, since WWII, helping people, via, mobility to get back to work.

You also came up with a digital extension of the 'three wheels' theme.

Yes, I did the Piaggio iMove (below) some time ago, thinking about Piaggio's APE and how that kind of three-wheeled vehicle changed—and still does in India—people's mobility at one point in history. iMove was intended to be a fully solar-powered vehicle that charges the batteries through its own painted panels. These are some of the future technology developments I've worked on that just need time to come to reality.

Why did you decide to set up the Advanced Design Center in Pasadena?

The executives at Piaggio in Italy were surprised when I suggested Pasadena. For them, California means Baywatch—the beach, you know?. I said, the world is changing faster than we can understand and we need to be in a place where the future happens first, where about 160 disparate cultures cross paths with each other. On the way to the office I see people from so many cultures, hear many, many languages. We see changes happen here. For example, after the 2008 financial crisis, you suddenly saw young Californians quitting cars and riding bicycles—unheard of before that—it's a new movement, happening here before the rest of the US.

The younger generation just aren't that into car ownership.

As a mobility company we need to push forward in another direction—and that's not a car. We are working in many directions right now, it could be the next generation of Moto Guzzi, or a Vespa, or something entirely new. We are definitely not living in the world I grew up in.

I'm at the tail end of the Baby Boomers. After the war everything felt possible. But now, it's different. My father was part of the generation where he would open the window of the car and throw the cigarette outside. I lived between Germany and Italy, as an adult, and we would keep the stuff in the car and recycle when we got home. But my sons are from the generation where recycling is just part of their life. The more ideas we have, the better. I am really focused on understanding what 14 year olds today will want to drive in the future. They don't care about horsepower, or vehicle ownership, they are different, they care about the environment, alternative energy, a different world.

Are there specific products Piaggio has developed for this generation?

Yes, for instance, Piaggio developed the Wi-Bike (below), an ecologically friendly bicycle with electric motor, transmission and battery, three assistance modes so you can get help going uphill if you want or push yourself through personal training app connectivity. It also has satellite anti-theft functionality. And, in 2016, we released the first electric Vespa—the Vespa Elettrica—a milestone for the brand.

Vespas are big in Asia.

I've been going to North Vietnam, to Hanoi, for work since 2007, when Piaggio started developing the whole line of Vespa scooters for the international market. The middle class in Asia is growing fast—the last research I saw said 250 million soon—but this is not the US definition of middle class. This is having the ability to go to school, have somewhere to live, enough to eat, many things we take for granted. But what's interesting is, even if they gain the monetary power to own a car, they have a different approach to life, they stick with two wheels, because of the congestion on the streets.

Part of your remit here is to work with the next generation of designers. Can you talk about that?

That's another reason why we're in L.A.—the proximity to the design schools. We commissioned a sponsored study with ArtCenter a few years ago to imagine the future of mobility in 2022. I graduated from there in 1986, and it was one of the best experiences in my life. The school didn't teach me anything specifically but it gave me an attitude—how to be a problem-solver, focus on aesthetics. The difference is the approach, the way you work; designers are sponges. Coming to ArtCenter, to California, was the first time, as someone from South America—a place of "limits"—where I suddenly had no limits; the only limit is what's in your head. It's an amazing environment, and I wanted to bring that influence, through collaborating with students, into the work we do here.

What tools do you use in your work apart from good old-fashioned pencil on paper sketching, and clay models?

You still need to know how to do that—and use a file [mimes sculpting a piece of wood]. But, in terms of the computer, we have software tools such as Cinema 4D—it was not supposed to be used in the way we're using it, but it works—and Rhino for 3D modeling; the industrial design tool Alias; ZBrush for sculpting and painting and CAD software Fusion 360. We have 3D printers here to produce scale models and parts, giving us the possibility to create something, build it, look at it, then send the files overnight to Italy where they prototype the next day, while we're sleeping here in California, then ship pieces back to us. It's a democratic way of working.

Do you see a future for automation in motorcycles—sentient machines?

[Shakes head vigorously] No, no, no. Let me explain: just like our brains where we have two different parts—the rational and the inspirational—motorcycles are romantic, it's a passion. Kids who are buying motorcycles today, especially vintage bikes, are doing it to get closer to something we've lost. Just like the resurgence in vinyl; a romanticism for the analog.

Plus they can see tons of videos on YouTube to learn how to strip down the engine and maintain the bike.

[Laughs] Yes, yes. When I was growing up in Buenos Aires, I'd take the bus 45 minutes to buy a US motorcycle bike magazine—and they were always three to six months late. But this was the only way I could feed my passion for motorcycles. Today young people are connected to everyone and everything at the touch of a button; it's amazing.

So what is your vision of the future of mobility?

We are just at the beginning of an alternative energy time for two-wheel vehicles, nothing is left behind. In my house, here in California, I have solar panels, and my electricity meter whirrs backwards all day. My vision for the future is when I can store that power and use it to run light, compact, two-wheel vehicles. Ride to work, if I need to, then plug it in and get home easily. This will make us independent of fuels that we have relied on for so many years.

Most importantly, these two-wheeled vehicles will be terribly chic, assolutamente, being Italian-style.

Naturally. [Laughs]

Further Reading

Cars & Auto Reviews