Yamaha Motor plans Gladiator exports

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Yamaha Motor India plans to export its newly launched bike, the 125 cc Gladiator, from its manufacturing base in India.

Takahiro Maeda, director and executive vice president at Yamaha Motor India told Business Standard that exports from the company's Surajpur factory in Uttar Pradesh will commence early next year.

"We will begin by exporting Gladiator to South American countries and Philippines. This was the bike's first launch in the Western India market. The company plans to follow up this launch with launches in Ahmedabad and Mumbai later this month," he said.

Maeda said the company will manufacture 100,000 bikes every year. "The Gladiator will be manufactured on our existing lines in Surajpur and we have not made any additional investment to add to the product portfolio," he clarified, adding that the new motorcycle is indegenised by about 85 per cent.

Gladiator, designed by Yamaha Japan, is also manufactured in other countries including Brazil and Mexico. The company is planning to use India as the base to export motorcycles to India's neighbours including Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Maeda said.

The Gladiator has a 4-stoke, 125 cc, five-speed engine and has been targeted at the young generation in the metros and upcoming urban centres, said Chandra Shekhar Bakshi, GM, sales and marketing.

"Metros and cities such as Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad or Ahmedabad are our target markets," he said.

Bakshi said the company has planned expansion of its dealer network across the country. He said the company will open a dealership in Mumbai next week.

Bakshi said the five-speed transmission of Gladiator is first in the executive segment of motorcycles. The Gladiator churns out a maximum power output of 8 kW and a maximum torque of 10.4 Nm.

"The powerful performance of Gladiator is much above the current executive bikes," Bakshi claimed.

Gladiator will be available in four colours; Deep Red Metallic, Yamaha Black, Silver 3 and Deep Purplish Blue Metallic.