Seems like Yamaha is taking the Indian market with seriousness we always expected them to. The Japanese two-wheeler major has established its new R & D facility near its production plant in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh. The R&D facility is set up with the new company name Yamaha Motor Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd. (YMRI) which is to become the company’s motorcycle R&D headquarters in India.
Clearly, the new initiative underlines a renewed focus that the Japanese company has about bringing new and more competitive products to India. In some sense the development also hints at the introduction of more technologically advanced and powerful bike to the Indian market. In general, if you are a biking aficionado, this news should bring a whole load of cheer to you.
The incorporation of a new R&D company is focused at increasing Yamaha’s manufacturing competitiveness in the country. As a part of the strategy, 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.
Established in February this year, the R&D company is the only the second such Integrated Development Center in the ASEAN region. The Integrated Development Center in Thailand was the first such facility established last year. The YMRI will be the fifth overseas R&D headquarters for Yamaha Motor Group following Italy, Taiwan, China, and Thailand. Big news, eh!
But that’s not all the good news we have, there’s more! Yamaha plans to expand both its production and R&D operations further in India by setting up a new site in Chennai to develop models for both Indian and Global markets, based on model platforms developed in Japan.
The fact that India is the largest bike market in the world (we overtook China last year) is bringing more and more focus from global bike manufacturers to the region. The market is expected to grow to an annual size of 16 million units in 2015. Yesterday we saw BMW tying up with TVS, and today we have this news of Yamaha R&D center. Expect more activity to follow very soon.
The new Integrated Development Center aims at adapting new products and making amends to contribute to India’s operations by optimizing them to fit the Indian market.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO & Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd. said, “We at Yamaha strongly believe in constant innovation. The R&D centre will help us to put channelized effort in conceptualization of new models and parts keeping in mind the changing customer preferences. This will help us not only to develop models and parts for India market but also to develop models and parts for export markets as well”.
Explaining the development further, Mr. Toshikazu Kobayashi, Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd. said, “We plan to achieve lowest cost models and parts in the world through INDRA (Innovative and New Development based on Responsible Analysis) activity meant to provide optimized specification thorough investigation in product life cycle. This activity will significantly help us in reducing the cost yet rolling out products that meet all customer aspirations and market standards.”
The details about newly formed company are as provided:
Company Name: Yamaha Motor Research & Development India Pvt. Ltd.
Location: Surajpur, State of Uttar Pradesh, India
Representative: Toshikazu Kobayashi, Managing Director
Capital: Rs 2 crore
Capital Contribution: Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. 100%
Business Operations: Research and Development of Motorcycle