Yamaha Motor India Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha of Japan, is eyeing a 21 per cent share in the Indian motorcycle market by 2003. Currently, the company has a 14 per cent market share in the domestic motorcycle mart. The company is also planning to hike its annual production capacity to 5,50,000 units by 2003 from the present level of 3,00,000 units.
Earlier known as Yamaha Motor Escorts Ltd, the company was rechristened Yamaha Motor India after the Nandas of the Escorts group exited from the joint venture by selling their 26 per cent stake to the Japanese partner last month.
Masahiko Shibuya, the new managing director of the company, said: "India, being the second largest bike market in the world, has a very important place in our global strategy."
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Till now, the company has invested about Rs 550 crore and depending on the market demand it plans to make an additional investment of around Rs 50-70 crore every year.
According to Shibuya, India would be the first country in Asia to have a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. "Yamaha is the largest exporter of motorcycles from India," he said, adding that during the last financial year, the company exported 20,000 motorcycles to 26 countries. "By 2003, we expect our exports to touch 10 per cent of the total production of 5,50,000 units," he added.
With plans to launch a new model each year, the company plans to launch an economy model motorcycle sometime around October this year. However, it has no immediate plans to venture into the high-powered motorcycles or the scooter market. Shibuya said, "In the present situation, we would like to consolidate our position on bikes."
Yamaha Motor India manufactures motorcycles at its two plants at Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad (Haryana). With a dealer network of 430 dealers, the company is in the process of strengthening the network by providing the dealers with better infrastructure and facilities.
The company is also planning to retain Rajdoot motorcycles as it sells around 75,000 units every year. As per the present agreement with Nandas, Yamaha will continue to pay a royalty of $6.5 per motorcycle.