India is going to be one of the major markets for Yamaha globally in the two-wheeler segment over the next three-four years, said Hiroyuki Suzuki, chief executive officer and managing director, India Yamaha Motor Private Limited.
“The country has big potential in the two-wheeler market and is going to be one of the key players for us globally and contribute a large chunk to the global sales,” he told mediapersons here on Friday.
The company today launched ‘Ray’, an automatic scooter, from Hyderabad marking its entry into the Indian scooter market.
India Yamaha Motors has a production capacity of 1 million units at its Noida plant. It is adding another 1.8 million capacity at its proposed facility at Chennai, with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. This would take the total capacity to 2.8 million units by 2018.
“We hope to break-even for the Chennai plant in the next one-two years, mostly by 2014,” said Hiroyuki Yanagi, president and chief executive officer of Yamaha Motor Company Limited.
Ray, targeted at the young female customers, is priced at Rs 46,500 (ex-showroom Hyderabad).
“We are looking at selling 400,000 units by this year-end, one million by 2014 and two million units by 2016,” Suzuki said, adding the company intended ‘Ray’ to compete in the fast growing scooter market, taking a targeted 20 per cent share by 2016.
The company also has plans to export the scooter to overseas markets including South America and other Asian countries. “India will play an extremely important role among the Yamaha group, not just in supplying to the Indian domestic market but also in exporting to other markets around the world,” he said.
Last year, of the total production of 520,000 units, the company exported 190,000 units. “We expect to export around 20 per cent of the total production once the new facility becomes operational,” Suzuki said.
