The story
History
Ferdinando Innocenti’s group in Milan launched the Lambretta scooter in 1947, and work on a three-wheeled micro van began early that year: an Innocenti drawing of a wheel spindle for the motor van “F” is dated 12 April 1947. At least three prototypes, the FA, were built, and two of them, one with an open box and one closed, were shown at the Milan fair on 29 April 1948; none was sold.source 1 The F stood for furgone, van. The name Lambro, from the same river as the scooter’s, is used today for all of Innocenti’s three-wheelers, but it became official only in 1963.source 2
The first on sale, the FB 125 of February 1949, was a front-loader. Its load box, open, closed in aluminium or wood, sat between two front wheels, and behind it was, in effect, the back half of the Lambretta B scooter, driving a single rear wheel and carrying about 200 kg (440 lb).source 1 The FC of November 1950 had a new frame, a transverse leaf spring across the front wheels and hydraulic brakes on all three; its 123 cc engine gave 4.3 CV through three gears, with no reverse, and it reached 45 km/h (28 mph).source 1
The load goes behind
In December 1952 the FD turned the layout round. It had one wheel at the front and the load behind the driver, with the scooter engine in the middle driving the two rear wheels through a tubular shaft and a bevel differential. The FD 125 carried 300 kg (660 lb), and from 1955 the 150 cc version carried 350 kg (770 lb) at up to 60 km/h (37 mph).source 1 Up to then the driver had sat on a saddle in the open. The FDC of October 1957 brought the first cab, with a canvas sunroof, a bench for two, a wiper and a speedometer, and the first reverse gear, selected by a pedal.source 3 In 1959 the Li 175 had four speeds and reverse, and its second series of 1960 a larger cab with a solid roof and 12-volt electrics. With the Lambro 175 that followed it, theLambro.com calls it the most successful of the Lambretta three-wheelers.source 4source 5
France had its own version. A French-built F300 of 125 cc was sold beside the Italian FD 125, and later a Lambro 125 built in Milan was open to drivers from 16 without a licence, a licence-free vehicle.source 6
Named for the load
The name Lambro arrived in June 1963 with the Lambro 200, of 198 cc and 8.9 hp, which ran on 10-inch wheels and carried 500 kg (1,100 lb).source 7 From 1965 the models were named for what they carried, not for their engines: the Lambro 450, with one headlamp and 175 cc, and the 550, with two and 198 cc.source 8source 2 The engine of the early cabs sat under the bench, and with it came noise, vibration and heat. The 550N of 1967 moved it out of the cab on four rubber mountings, and the long 550A of 1968, with a tipping body, outsold the 550N by 19 per cent while both were built.source 9
In April 1969 Innocenti told its dealers of a new line. It had a square cab drawn by Bertone with Innocenti, a low floor, a heater and electric starting, and the whole body tilted 45 degrees to reach the engine. The 550V had a steering wheel, on the left, working through a reduction box that lightened the steering and stopped road shocks reaching the wheel; the 550M kept the handlebars. Until the 550V the front brake had been worked by a lever on the handlebar, a habit carried over from the scooter.source 10source 7
… the new line of three-wheelers - thanks to its main characteristics, very similar to those of a van - is directed towards a market till now applied to the traditional commercial vehicles.
On 20 January 1970 Innocenti told its licensees that the Italian authorities had approved a working load of 600 kg, and the 550s were renamed 600V and 600M at once.source 11 The 600M ended in November 1971 and the 600V in January 1972.source 2 Its leaflets of 1963 and 1969 had offered bodies for refuse, fire and police work, a microbus, post, hospital, farm and airport work, and fuel and drinks; by 1969 only chassis were being shipped overseas.source 12 The Lambro 550 became an everyday vehicle in Vietnam.source 8
India
Innocenti stopped building scooters and three-wheelers in 1971–72, and in 1972 the Indian government bought the machinery and formed Scooters India Ltd at Lucknow. Its Lambro, later sold as the Vikram, went into production in about 1977 or 1978, and the three-wheelers carried on, later with CNG and electric power, after the scooters ended in 1997, until the firm’s closure was approved in about 2020 or 2021.source 13 Automobile Products of India also built a three-wheeler based on the Lambro, the API-175 (see built under licence).source 14
