Yamaha begins using green aluminium in Japanese motorcycles

Yamaha Motor Co has announced today that it has reached an agreement with an aluminium ingot supplier for the procurement of green aluminium, and began using it as a raw material for parts in Yamaha motorcycles in February 2023. This is the first time that green aluminium will be used in Japanese motorcycles and Yamaha plans to gradually expand its usage in models going forward.

‘Green aluminium’ is aluminium that is refined using renewable energy sources to emit less CO2 in its manufacture. Aluminium parts account for 12% to 31%*² of the total vehicle weight of a motorcycle, so adopting green aluminium is one effective approach for reducing CO₂ emissions from the raw material manufacturing part of a product's life cycle (falls under Scope 3 Category 1 emissions for supply chains).

Through the development of its engineering and production technologies and expertise, Yamaha states that it has actively pushed the use of recycled aluminium, which now comprises some 80% of the company's aluminium usage. This introduction of green aluminium is meant to complement this and will be employed for parts that still cannot be manufactured with recycled materials.

As a first step, Yamaha Motor will utilise green aluminium for certain parts in its large-displacement and off-road competition motorcycles, and the company plans to expand the number of models using the material in the future as available supply volumes allow.

In line with the Yamaha Motor Group Environmental Plan 2050, the Japanese automaker is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality throughout all of its business activities, including its entire supply chain, by 2050. To realise this, it has set a goal of switching to 100% sustainable materials by 2050, such as adopting more plant-derived resin materials, developing recyclable polypropylene, and adopting green materials and other recycled materials for its motorcycles manufactured in Japan and overseas.

Main image: courtesy Yamaha Motor Co (all rights reserved)