India set to become Yamaha’s second-largest market by end-2017

India is en route to becoming the Japanese two-wheeler major’s second-largest market by the end of this year, behind Indonesia which is currently No. 1 with sales of 1.45 million units in CY2016.

By Sumantra B Barooah

24 Jan 2017

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L-R: Ravindra Singh, VP, Yamaha Motor India Sales; Hiro Aki Fujita, chairman, Yamaha Motor India-G Cos; Masaki Asano, MD, Yamaha Motor India Sales; actor John Abraham; Roy Kurian, VP (Sales and Market

Yamaha is accelerating its growth drive for the India market. In fact, India is en route to becoming the Japanese two-wheeler major’s second-largest market by the end of this year, behind Indonesia which is currently No. 1 with sales of 1.45 million units in CY2016.

If everything goes as per plan, its subsidiary company India Yamaha Motor’s management team believes India will ride past Vietnam, the current No. 2 for Yamaha with sales of 800,000 units in CY2016. In 2016, India Yamaha Motor sold a total of 780,000 two-wheelers, with 53 percent of them being scooters. This year, the company is gunning for a million sales, with around 600,000 of them being scooters.

According to Masaki Asano, MD, Yamaha Motor India Sales, India Yamaha Motor should become the No. 1 in about five years. The company is likely to reach peak manufacturing capacity of 1.8 million units per annum at its three plants in the country. While the Surajpur and Faridabad plant in Haryana have similar capacities of 700,000 units each, the Chennai plant has a manufacturing capacity of 450,000 units per annum.

Speaking at the launch of the new FZ25 today in New Delhi, Asano said that India is the first and only market to produce this motorcycle. The company will, if needed, export this made-in-India product. Nevertheless, IYM is targeting export sales of over 200,000 units this year.

Also read: Yamaha India launches hot FZ25 for Rs 119,500