Yamaha Motors India earlier had announced that they will not introduce any new motorcycles and will be concentrating on the Indian scooter market till 2015. With Yamaha Ray Z getting a good response in the scooter market the company plans to launch another unisex scooter in the first half of 2014.
The Yamaha Ray was targeted mainly at youth looking for a sporty scooter. It unfortunately could find only more of woman buyers. The revamped Ray Z was later launched to attract male buyers. Yamaha now plans to launch another unisex scooter which will most probably be launched at the 2014 Indian Auto Expo. It might use the same 113cc engine currently powering its siblings but it is also speculated to get a more powerful engine, probably a 125cc.
Yamaha Motor India is setting up a new plant near Chennai investing about Rs 1,500 crore. It is expected to be functional by January 2014. We can expect the motorcycle manufacturer to bring out many new models in the commuter segment. The company has an overall market share of three per cent in India. It plans to increase it to about 10 per cent by 2016. The scooter segment will definitely add a large amount to this share.
Without letting out any more details about the unisex scooter, Asano Masaki, MD of Yamaha Motor India said, "Through our premium motorcycles we have created a strong brand amongst the India's youth, but over 90% of Indian two-wheelers are utilised for daily commute purpose. We think there is a good potential for a unisex family scooter, which would help us build our volumes going ahead."
