It has emerged that the Indian subsidiary of Yamaha Motors will showcase an all new scooter at the upcoming 2014 Indian Auto Expo. The upcoming scooter will boast of a ‘unisex’ style and would be positioned above the Ray. It may be noted that the Ray is the first and only scooter by Yamaha Motor India and caters to the fairer sex.
The upcoming scooter hasn’t yet been given a name but what we do know for sure is that it will be pitted against the formidable Honda Activa. Worth mentioning is that the Honda Activa is easily the undisputed leader of the automatic scooter segment and has been quite a success story. It is expected that the upcoming scooter would share its engine with the Ray.
This revelation comes from none other than Asano Masaki, who is the chief executive and managing director of Yamaha Motor India. Talking about the company’s plans of launching a new scooter, Asano told Business Standard that Yamaha wishes to increase sales in the scooter segment in the next three years. He said that a new “commuter scooter” will play a vital role in the achievement of this target.
It may be noted that the unisex scooter segment accounts for as much as 70 percent of total scooter sales. The fact that Honda sells more than 100,000 units of Activa every month alone reflects the potential that lies in the automatic scooter industry.
As per Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), scooter sales have witnessed a healthy growth of 17% in the first six months of this year. On the contrary, motorcycle sales grew by a mere 1 percent!
It now remains to be seen if the upcoming Yamaha unisex scooter would be able to snatch away a chunk of sales from the Honda Activa.
Stay tuned to Motoroids for more updates on the upcoming Yamaha unisex scooter.
Would like to see more of the Naked and Retro bikes from Yamaha Something in the category of Royal Enfield.(leads from FZ9, MT01 and BMW R9). Higher CC segments but not targeted at higher speed or racing segment. And a scooter which looks like Kawasaki J300 with 150cc engine.