Japanese giant Yamaha is all set to make the
‘made-in-India’ tag global. The bike-maker company has decided that it
will develop and manufacture its ‘global models’ in India, which would
then be sold in emerging Asian markets, as well as European markets and
in Japan.
Hiroyuki Yanagi, the President and CEO of Yamaha
Motor Co said that India was low-cost market, and it would be ideal to
develop stylish global models from this country and sell them in
European and Asian markets. Yamaha was eager to make India a
manufacturing location for bikes powered by 100cc-200cc engines. Other
than Europe and Asia, there would be a few other markets for these bikes
as well, such as South Africa and Yamaha’s home market, Japan.
Yamaha had been a popular and highly favored brand
in India till the late nineties, after which it started losing out to
competition from Hero Honda (now Hero Motocorp; the partnership being
broken), Bajaj Auto and TVS.
The Japanese company is now looking at various ways
to enhance its market rankings by launching a slew of new models for
both the domestic and global market. One sector where it is flourishing
is in the scooter segment, with the Ray model for women becoming highly
popular and had to be complemented by the addition of the Ray Z for men.
Yanagi said that he expected sales in the Indian market to rise gradually, despite the base being relatively small now.
Yamaha has recently undertaken a very ambitious
project by starting development for very cheap scooter models and
motorcycles – below Rs. 27000 – in India. China would be one among the
markets where these low-cost models would be exported, making Yamaha the
first company to take a ‘made-in-India’ original automobile to China.
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