Jaidev Majumdar

Kolkata, April 11: TWO-WHEELER major Yamaha Motor Escorts Ltd (YMEL), manufacturer of Yamaha motorcycles in India, has made changes in its strategy. The company will now introduce motorcycle models every three months instead of six months. It has also decided to rev up production of motorcycles in its two manufacturing units located in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

“We are now in a position to introduce new motorcycle models in India every three months,” sources in Yamaha said. With the introduction of new models every quarter, the company hopes to offer a wider choice to customers both in the two and four-stroke categories.

YMEL is a 74:26 joint venture between Yamaha Motors Ltd of Japan and the Delhi-based Escorts group. The company had announced in January this year that it would introduce new motorcycle models every six months. It is understood that the change in policy has been effected owing to a rise in volumes of motorcycle sales in the country. The company has recently relaunched a reworked version of RXZ model that it had scrapped about a year ago.

“We have made the RXZ model available in the market only about 10 days back. The new version incorporates new features like disc brakes that did not feature in any of our motorbikes earlier. Pitted against competitors like Hero Honda CBZ and Suzuki Fiero, RXZ is priced at Rs 53,870 (ex-showroom Kolkata), a good Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 less than others,” sources said.

Being in the two-stroke category, RXZ has the distinct advantage of a better re-sale value and a mileage of 30km to a litre, at par with the others of its genre, sources added. Meanwhile, the company’s sale of the 4-stroke motorcycle ‘Crux’ has forced Yamaha to step up production in the two manufacturing units located at Faridabad in Haryana and Surajpur in UP. The two units combine to manufacture about 9,500 units of ‘Crux’ motorcycles every month. “We will be stepping up the production here to 12,000 units in April and increase it further by 3,000 units in May,” he said.

In March 2001, Yamaha sold 9,500 units of ‘Crux’ across India. Of this, 1769 units were sold only in the east. West Bengal topped the list with a sales figure of 828, followed by Orissa with 440 and Bihar 340.

According to an industry estimate, the motorcycle market in the country is pegged at 21 lakh units annually. Of this, the company has a marketshare of 9 per cent. East contributes about 19 per cent to Yamaha’s overall sales.

The influx of cheap Chinese motorcycles, post removal of QRs, is not much of a concern for the company.
“Temporarily they may make a dent to the sales figure of the established players. But it will only be temporary. These motorcycles can never provide customers the kind of after sales service that domestic two-wheeler manufacturers can,” Yamaha officials said.