Launch Date For The Yamaha R3 And MT-03 Inches Closer!
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The bikes will be sold through Yamaha’s Blue Square dealership network
The anticipation for the upcoming big bikes from Yamaha has been bubbling for some time now. And it looks like they are arriving on our shores very soon. In an interview with another publication, Eishin Chihana, chairman of Yamaha Motor India, has confirmed that the YZF-R3 and the MT-03 will be launched by the end of this year and the YZF-R7, MT-07 and the MT-09 will be launched in 2024.
This is a major revelation about the exact time of launch of Yamaha’s upcoming big bikes. Till now, we’ve known that the bikes were going to arrive in 2023 when it was confirmed last year. Recently, the MT-03, YZF-R3, YZF-R7, MT-07 and the MT-09 were showcased at a dealer event. We got further confirmation regarding Yamaha being on track to execute the launches this year when the YZF-R7 was spied at the Madras Motor Race Track.
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Mr. Chihana also revealed that the incoming big bikes will be sold through the manufacturer’s premium Blue Square dealership network. The Blue Square network is about to comprise of 200 dealerships in India and by 2026, all Yamaha outlets across the country will be part of the Blue Square network.
The YZF-R3 and the MT-03 will likely be brought here through the CBU route and Yamaha might explore bringing them as CKD units in the future. Whereas the YZF-R7, MT-07 and the MT-09 will arrive as CBU units.
The Indian two-wheeler market has always been very price sensitive and right now, the scenario in the 300-400cc capacity segment is dominated by the highly competitive pricing of the motorcycles. Case in point being bikes like the Triumph Speed 400 and the KTM 390 Duke among the naked motorcycles and the RC 390 among the supersports.
The MT-03 gets a 321cc, liquid-cooled, parallel-twin engine producing 43PS and 29.6Nm. That’s 3PS more than the Speed 400 and about 7.9Nm less than the Speed 400 and the KTM 390 Duke. The Triumph and the KTM are both priced under the Rs 3 lakh mark. With the MT-03 arriving as a CBU unit, it’ll be far more expensive with an expected ex-showroom price in the region of Rs 4 lakh. So, the MT-03 produces similar power figures and is not as feature-loaded compared to the other two bikes with its only major highlight being the in-line twin-cylinder engine. As such, Yamaha might find it difficult to attract many potential customers to part with the Rs 1 lakh premium.
And the situation is similar in case of the YZF-R3 too when compared to the RC 390 with the KTM being much more powerful and offering more than just exciting performance at a much cheaper price tag.
So, is history going to repeat itself for Yamaha again?