Yamaha Plans $500 Motorcycle in India
News | July 13, 2012Yamaha Motor Co. is planning to develop their cheapest motor cycle in the world in India, for being sold for around $500, as this Japanese maker of 2-wheeler battles along with rivals like Honda Motor Co. for bigger share in market. Hiroyuki Suzuki, the chief executive at India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., recently said in one interview that they have done very well till now with their premium motorcycles for India & now they think that it is right time for addressing bigger part of market where the volumes are really high.
This new model will mostly help Yamaha in expanding their sales for India where the 2 wheelers are really popular as they are cheaper and also better in terms of fuel efficiency as compared to the utility vehicles and cars. This company has set for itself, a target of around ten percent of the market share by the year 2016 from three and half percent right now. The sales of motorcycles for India, which is second largest market for two wheelers, grew by around 12 per cent to about 10.1 million units in fiscal year through to March. Around seventy percent of the sales are comprised of the entry level bikes having capacities of engines of around 100-125 cubic cms.
India’s biggest 2 wheeler maker in terms of sales – Hero MotorCorp Ltd., has six bikes which belong to the entry level pack and companies like Yamaha, Suzuki Motor Corp, and Honda and now expanding presence of theirs in this segment. Yamaha is currently selling their 110cc models of motorcycle YBR and Crux for Rs. 43,500 (or $760) and Rs. 36,300 (or $635) respectively. Nearly all of the competing brands belong to same range of price.
Yamaha Motorcycle
Suzuki said that just 1 for every 25 people in India have a two wheeler of their own. There is plenty of scope for attracting a lot of buyers by bringing products that are efficient in terms of fuel and are priced reasonably. He also said that Yamaha is looking to strengthen their development and research capabilities for developing models of low cost with out any support of parent. He did not say anything about the time line to introduce entry level new motorcycle but had said that it’ll be exported too.
Yamaha said that they will be investing around 23 billion Indian rupees in this country over five years from here on for developing some new products. They will also use this money for building new factory and raising output for meeting the expected demand surge. By the year 2018, they are planning to make around 2.8 million automobiles here in India and they are just at 600,000 right now. This company is really hoping to boost their sales for India to around 2 million automobiles by the year 2016 from around 520,000 in the year 2011 and targeted 640,000 for the year 2012. Suzuki said that Yamaha will be selling around 3 new models of scooter in India by next 2 years and one of them will be introduced in the month of October.
