It seems like the woes for the Kawasaki Ninja 650 are about to rise as after Benelli and Honda, it’s Yamaha who is considering to enter the middle-weight touring sport segment of motorcycles in the Indian two-wheeler market. The word comes from Yamaha Motor Research & Development India President Yasuo Ishihara who, in an interview to AutoCar Professional, said that the Indian arm of the Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer is in early talks to introduce a Honda CBR650F rivaling product for the sub-continent.
While Ishihara did not suggest a specific model to enter the middle-weight touring motorcycle space, looking at Yamaha’s current global line-up, there is a good possibility that it’s the 600cc in-line four cylinder, fully faired and touring spec FZ6R that would make way into the Indian two-wheeler market.
Speaking about the company’s future product strategy Ishihara said, “This is related to the marketing strategy and manufacturing condition but personally I want to expand in the over-500cc segment. Honda has recently launched the CBR 650F (in India) and we want to catch up. If everybody in our company agrees, then we can introduce such a model very quickly as we have it in other countries. Initially, we can bring it as a CKD.”
Ishihara did not suggest any time-frame for the expected launch of this Honda CBR650F rivaling motorcycle as the two-wheeler maker is yet to finalise the product for the Indian market. But if the things falls in correct order, we may see this new middle-weight sports tourer from Yamaha rolling on Indian streets by late 2016 or early 2017.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Source: AutoCar Professional