Yamaha Motors India has decided to focus its attention and resources on the Indian scooter market till 2015. It plans to launch a scooter range which will cater to all segments of the market, the first of which will be a sporty model targeted at a younger age group.
“Our focus is scooters. It is the fastest growing two-wheeler category in India. By 2015, the share of scooters in overall two-wheeler segment is expected to double to 40 per cent from 20 per cent at present,” said Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO and MD. Yamaha had entered the scooter market for the first time in September with the launch of the Ray.
The company has said that it will not introduce any new bikes and added that it will update all its existing models. It has, however, begun plans to introduce a mass market 125cc bike in India by 2015.
While Yamaha has clearly said that they will not introduce any new bikes, we are sure the R4/ YFZ-250R, that is making its debut at the 2012 EICMA show, will come to India. It will join the R15 to form a sub-500cc sports bike range for the Japanese automaker. It is also likely that Yamaha will use the success of the R15 to sell the 250R much like how it did with the RX100 and the RX135 in the 1980s. Yamaha is also setting up a new Rs 1500 crore plant near Chennai which it says will be ready by January 2014.
Source: Financial Chronicle
