Establishment of a new motorcycle R&D company in India

April 9, 2013

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has established Yamaha Motor Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd. (YMRI) in Surajpur, State of Uttar Pradesh, which is to become the motorcycle R&D headquarters in India. This initiative is intended to increase Yamaha's manufacturing competitiveness in the country. The function of the India Procurement Center established last year has been transferred and incorporated into the new company, and will now operate as the India Integrated Development Center.

Yamaha Motor's Key Group Companies in India YMRI was established in February this year to function as the core of the second Integrated Development Center, following the establishment of the ASEAN Integrated Development Center in Thailand last year. The YMRI will be the fifth overseas R&D headquarters for Yamaha Motor Group following Italy, Taiwan, China, and Thailand.

The new Integrated Development Center aims to contribute to India's operations by "change drawings", tailoring reforms to design, maintenance, and production standards tailored to the Indian market to achieve low-cost manufacturing.
Future plans include the setup of the new Chennai site to develop models intended for the Indian market, which are currently being developed in Japan.

The motorcycle market in India has been growing constantly in recent years owing to political and economic stability and financial growth - the market scale reached around 14 million units in 2012 overtaking China to become the world's largest motorcycle market. The market is expected to grow further, reaching 16 million units in 2015.
In this environment, Yamaha has been aggressively launching models in the premium and deluxe segment and breaking into the rapidly growing scooter category, achieving sales of 350,000 units in 2012. Based on the new medium-term plan commencing this year, Yamaha will continue to launch products in the scooter category while expanding the sales network, and constructing and launching the second factory in Chennai (2014). Sales of 500,000 units in 2013, and 1 million units in 2015 are expected.

New Company Outline