Yamaha has established as a premium manufacturer of motorcycles in India among the ones catering to the masses. Its bikes are usually priced over by Rs 6,000-8,000 over similar bikes from competitors and the R15 also happens to be most premium 150cc bike in the country. The company now wants to enter the volume segment and has been working on an India-specific bike for a while now.
Yamaha RX100 (image used as an illustration).
The bike has been codenamed INDRA (Innovative and New Development based on Responsible Analysis) and has its price target set to Rs 30,000. It will be developed with combined efforts from Japan and India. Yamaha usually distributes the drawings of its bikes to its suppliers of parts who then, in turn provide the parts for the bikes.
But in this case, the vendors are working with R&D teams in order to build the bike at a cost. The company’s China facility will be the one from which the bike will be rolled out. The facility has a 180-acre spread and out the same 60 acres will be provided to 8 Japanese vendors including KYB (Kayaba) for taking charge of the suspension, Sakura will taking the responsibility for job systems and the other suppliers will be spearheading the casting and alloy wheels.
There are going to be dedicated vendors for Injection moulding and painting. What this will do is that it will help keep the costs down as then it won’t have to source the parts from various places. The bike will be launched in the country in 2016-17 and the bikes will be exported to Africa alongside being put on sale in the country. Markets such as Indonesia and Brazil will also be targeted with the bike.
(Note – The image is of Yamaha RX 100 which is now discontinued from the market, the actual motorcycle may defer from the above shown model.)
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Also see – Yamaha India to launch low-cost motorcycle priced below Rs. 28,000
Source – Business Line
