A vision and dream to create something revolutionary is usually a starting point of a great innovation. Tata Nano by Ratan Tata is one such innovations which has redefined the term affordability for owning a car. As per information shared with Hindustan Timed by Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO and MD of India Yamaha Motor, Yamaha is working on a low cost motorcycle for emerging economies like India and Africa. As per Mr. Hiroyuki Suzuki, Yamaha would like to develop a motorcycle which will cost under US Dollar 500 which is approximately Rs. 28,000. Such a price segment can create huge demand in India and African automobile markets.
At present, the cheapest motorcycle sold in India is the Hero MotoCorp’s CD Dawn which is priced close to Rs. 36,000 but there is a huge scope in a segment which is relatively untapped which is sub- Rs.30,000 segment which can bring a lot more buyers to Yamaha India. Yamaha India’s lowest price motorcycle in India is the Crux which is priced just above Rs. 38,000 which costs about 40% higher compared to Yamaha Low Cost bike which Yamaha plans to develop. There is no timeline on when this Yamaha Low Cost Motorcycle will be launched, but it certainly is an ambitious project and may create fortunes for Yamaha.
It will be one of the lowest priced Motorcycles across the world with under $500 pricing. There is a huge two wheeler market in both India and Africa. In India only, approximately 10 lakh two wheelers are sold every month in a price segment starting close Rs. 40,000 and above with most of the sales coming from commuter segment of under 150 CC. Key players in Indian market are Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and HMSI with large part of market share while Yamaha is far from the top 3 positions as Yamaha is more popular in the premium segment of Motorcycles compared to the commuter segment. Talking of African markets, Bajaj has a strong presence there with their Boxer Motorcycle and it is also a huge potential market for Yamaha with its low cost motorcycle. It will be interesting to see how and when Yamaha comes up with this product as this is a relatively untamed territory.
via – Hindustan Times
