Looks like the strategy of focusing only on scooters till 2015 has worked for India Yamaha Motors. It has announced that by December, India will become their second biggest market after Indonesia.
Currently, Vietnam is the second biggest market for the Japanese manufacturer; however, the Indian market is just 16,000 units behind Vietnam. As per their third q uarter results which was revealed last week, Indonesia maintained its lead with 1.89 million units sold in the January-September period. Vietnam was a distant second with 4.39 lakh units with India rapidly closing in at 4.23 lakh bikes and scooters. Thailand was way behind in fourth slot at 1.58 lakh units.
India Yamaha Motors has a practice of not revealing model wise sales figures, but we expect the majority sales are coming from the scooters. This is why few years ago, the Japanese manufacturer made a serious decision of not launching any new bikes but to concentrate only on the scooters till 2015. Over the years, the scooter market in India has grown in double digits and looks like, this has helped Yamaha in a big way.
The Japanese manufacturer didn’t really keep quiet at the motorcycle end. It launched the fuel-injected version of its most successful bikes FZ and the Fazer. Along with this, it showcased the refreshed SZ-RR which gets Yamaha’s Blue Core technology.
While the Indian arm of Yamaha would like to get close to Indonesia’s sales over the next few months, it would really be possible only when it increases its production capacity, which for now won’t be sufficient to meet the required numbers. However, it is in the process of setting up a new plant in Chennai that will be operational in the next few months. This is the same plant that will manufacture Yamaha India’s dream project “Indra”. Along with its Surajpur facility, this will take Yamaha’s overall capacity to 2.8 million units.
Source: thehindubusinessline
