Yamaha opens R&D Centre in Surajpur, work underway on low-cost bike for India

Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh, April 9, 2013: Yamaha Motor Company has set up an all-new R&D centre in Surajpur to drive new product development in India. Yamaha Motor Research & Development India (YMRI), headed by managing director Toshikazu Kobayashi, will be the motorcycle R&D hub in India and is aimed at increasing Yamaha’s R&D manufacturing competitiveness in the country.

The big news is that YMRI has begun development work on a low-cost bike for India – which will cost less than Rs 40,000 – and will also consider this for the global market. This around-110cc commuter motorcycle will be pitted against the Honda Dream Yuga and Suzuki Hayate commuter bikes. Yamaha’s main development target of a US$ 500 (Rs 27,000) bike remains.

Yamaha is targeting exports of these low-cost models and will also be developing parts, both for the domestic and export markets. It has already begun exporting engine parts last year to Indonesia and some other Asian countries where engine parts are common.

The Japanese two-wheeler major has invested Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) in the R&D centre. The company says development costs in India are almost half of that in Japan. Meanwhile, the function of the India Procurement Centre, set up last year, has been transferred and incorporated into YMRI which will now operate as an India Integrated Development Centre.

YMRI, which was set up in February this year, will function as the core of the second integrated development centre, following the establishment of the ASEAN Integrated Development Centre in Thailand last year. YMRI will be the fifth overseas R&D HQ for the Yamaha Motor Group following similar facilities in Italy, Taiwan, China and Thailand.

Meanwhile, Yamaha’s R&D Centre in Chennai which will become operational in 2015 will develop low-cost scooters also in the less than Rs 40,000 price range and India-market models which are currently being developed in Japan. Yamaha says it will launch one new scooter model every year till 2016.

Clearly, Japanese two-wheeler companies are upping the ante in the Indian market in a bid to drive their new product development programmes. In January this year, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India set up a cutting-edge Technical Centre in its Manesar plant which will help drive its vehicle and parts development programme.

SHOBHA MATHUR

Photograph (L-R): Toshikazu Kobayashi, MD of YMRI, Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO and MD, India Yamaha Motor, and Yuh Motoyama, senior GM, engineering, Motorcycle Business Operations, Yamaha Motor Company.