Yokohama India is evaluating an entry into the country's two-wheeler tyre market by the end of 2027, with premium radial motorcycle tyres likely to be its starting point as the Japanese tyre maker looks beyond its passenger car and SUV business.
“Two-wheeler is a project which is already in the pipeline, and if everything goes well, by next year-end, we should have a two-wheeler tyre,” Harinder Singh, Managing Director and CEO of Yokohama India, told Autocar Professional.
The product roadmap has not yet been finalised. Yokohama's initial thinking is to enter at the premium end of the motorcycle market before gradually moving into higher-volume categories.
“We have not made the roadmap. But the initial thought is that we probably will go with the radial tyres for the bikes and then we'll come down,” Singh said.
The company is also assessing whether the Indian two-wheeler tyre market offers enough room for another player before committing to the business.
“We are exploring to see whether it's worth entering the market. And if we think yes, it will be pretty quick,” said Nitin Mantri, Senior Managing Officer and Co-COO at Yokohama Rubber Co. and Chairman of Yokohama India.
The proposed entry comes at a time when India's two-wheeler market is expanding strongly after several years of uneven growth. Domestic two-wheeler sales reached a record 2.17 crore units in FY26, up 10.7% year-on-year, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Growth accelerated in the second half following GST rationalisation, with H2 sales rising about 21.5%.
The momentum has continued in FY27. Two-wheeler wholesales rose 20.3% to 56.29 lakh units during April-June, according to SIAM. In July alone, sales increased 22.6% to 19.23 lakh units. Cumulative domestic sales during April-July stood at about 75.5 lakh units, up 20.9% from a year earlier. Motorcycles grew 15.6% during the four months to 43.8 lakh units, while scooter sales rose 28.9% to 29.8 lakh units.
According to Crisil, the growth is expected to moderate from these high levels but remain positive. It expects India's overall two-wheeler volumes, including exports, to grow 7-9% in FY27 to around 29 million units. It expects domestic volumes to expand 6-8%.
The premium end of the motorcycle market is also gaining ground. According to Crisil, motorcycles still account for about 60% of domestic two-wheeler volumes, and entry-level models of up to 125cc account for roughly 73% of motorcycle sales. However, the share of 150-350cc motorcycles has increased to around 25% in FY26 from about 23% in FY25, pointing to gradual premiumisation.
That shift provides a potential entry point for Yokohama. Instead of competing immediately in the high-volume commuter tyre business, the company could use premium radial tyres to build its motorcycle brand before moving into broader categories.
Competition at the premium end is already strong. MRF, Apollo Tyres, CEAT and TVS Eurogrip offer tyres for performance and premium motorcycles, including radial and steel-belted radial products. Balkrishna Industries also entered India's consumer tyre market in February 2026 with motorcycle and scooter tyres under its Zenova and Thyros ranges, and has said it eventually wants to scale two-wheeler tyre production to one million units a month by 2030.
For Yokohama, a two-wheeler entry would mark an expansion beyond its current consumer tyre portfolio in India. The company's India business is primarily focused on passenger cars and SUVs, with brands including ADVAN, BluEarth and Geolandar.
Globally, Yokohama has a wider tyre portfolio covering passenger cars, trucks and buses, light trucks, vans and off-highway applications such as mining, construction and agricultural equipment.
The proposed two-wheeler entry would therefore open a new consumer category for the company in India. Yokohama's immediate manufacturing expansion, however, remains centred on passenger-car tyres. The company currently has annual passenger-car tyre capacity of about 4.5 million units across its Bahadurgarh facility in Haryana and Visakhapatnam plant in Andhra Pradesh. It plans to raise this to 6.3 million tyres annually over the next one to three years, with investment of close to $100 million.
Some of the infrastructure required for the next phase of expansion is already in place. Singh said the company can add machinery as demand rises.
“You will see that one part of the factory is infrastructure ready, we just need to put the machinery,” he said, adding that investment support from the Japanese parent would not be a constraint.
Mantri said the company intends to keep its Indian manufacturing capacity primarily focused on domestic demand, although spare capacity can be used to supply Yokohama's global network.
Yokohama has not yet finalised the manufacturing location, investment or production capacity for its proposed two-wheeler tyre business. Those decisions are expected to follow once the company completes its market assessment and finalises the product roadmap.