India Yamaha plans to export to the parent land, Japan, soon

The Japanese two wheeler titan, Yamaha Motor Company, first stepped on Indian shores around 27 years back. Since then, India has come a long way, which has lent Yamaha a huge helping. And now, Yamaha starts to export bikes. What makes it a whooper is the fact that Yamaha would be exporting bikes from India to Japan! Indian leg of Yamaha, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., will start exporting with the model R15, the bike with a 150cc displacement, which is one of the most popular bike of its segment and is manufactured in Surajpur, Greater NOIDA plant. In the initial lot, the brand will export a total of 300 deluxe bikes of this model. This will be the testing phase of these Indian bikes on the Japanese grounds. If the test goes fine, the company would start exporting more, which would then include few other bikes too, including FZ.

On this latest development, Mr. Hiroyaki Suzuki, the MD of India Yamaha Motors, has to say “The motorcycles manufactured in India meet the advanced specification of developed markets and they are produced at a lower cost. We are sending Yamaha yzf R15 to Japan to test market them in the Japanese market and if the response is good, we may explore more products for export to Japan and other advanced markets.” Recognizing the kind of the market that Japan has, Suzuki pipes in, "Japan is a market for big bikes and racing motorcycles and within that, the 150 cc segment is emerging. Our R15 fits the image; not only is it easy to race and manoeuvre, but it could also be an ideal choice for entry-level racing.” He also adds in, “ If the response is good, our next target would be Europe.”

Each year, Japan gets to see an annual sale of around 4,00,000 unit of two wheelers. Out of this huge sales, most are the 50cc scooters, with the rest of the numbers dedicated to the big machines. The company now plans to gain a major part of this sector with the launch of R15. In India, this model of Yamaha sells for Rs. 1.15 lakhs, however, what the expects in Japan is 3.43 Yens, which when converted to Indian currency comes to Rs. 2.45 lakhs. Yamaha has already been exporting its products to Portugal, Spain and Turkey.

Exporting bikes is not a new business to India now. Brands like Bajaj Auto and TVS have already been exporting to part of Africa, Latin America and other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, etc. However, Yamaha is one of the first few to start exporting to the developed economies of the world. Others from India who export to developed nations are Royal Enfield and Eicher Motors. India, in fact, is seeing quite enough growth in terms of two wheel exports. Bajaj Auto has been one of the major exporters with around 1.26 million units of export, next comes TVS, who has exported around 2.6 lakh units. Yamaha of India has been exporting 1,29,394 units for the past year attaining a growth of 45%. All in all, the exports of two wheelers from hr country has seen a rise on the graphs, 27.13%, making around 1.94 million units in the last fiscal year, while in 2010-11 India had exported 1.53 million units.