Yamaha Motor Co has announced the launch in August of the Nozza Grande, a city scooter targeted at female riders in Vietnam. The Nozza Grande bears European styling and is powered by a new air-cooled, 125cc, fuel-injected engine claimed to deliver good acceleration, fuel economy (54 kilometres per litre), and environmental performance. Both the manufacture and sale of the model will be carried out by Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co, the Vietnamese branch of the Yamaha Motor Group. 
As per a Yamaha survey, the Vietnamese two-wheeler market recorded a demand level of approximately 2.8 million units in 2013, of which scooters comprised approximately 40 percent or 11.2 lakh units. In 2011, the company developed its first Vietnamese scooter model for women, the Nozza, which proved popular and has sold 110,000 units to date. This second model, the Nozza Grande, aims to further grow this scooter market. Yamaha is targeting annual sales of 100,000 units of the Nozza Grande. While the standard model is priced at

Like Vietnam, demand for scooters is fast growing in India. In fact, from 2009-10, which saw total sales of 1,462,534 scooters/scooterettes, sales have nearly doubled in 2013-14 to 2,923,424. Scooters are currently contributing substantially to Yamaha’s  growth in India and thanks to growing sales of the 113cc Ray, the Ray Z and the Alpha, Yamaha Motor India currently has a market share of 6 percent. Scooters contribute about 45 percent to its total two-wheeler sales with bikes providing 55 percent but company officials says with the fast-growing demand for scooters in India, the equation is likely to become 50:50.

With the 125cc scooter segment seeing much activity in India in recent times, what with the launch of the Honda Activa 125 and only Suzuki’s Access and Swish and Vespa LX125 as rivals in the segment, will Yamaha look to bring its 125cc Vietnamese scooters to India? Stay tuned for more on this front.