Despite the slowdown in the two-wheeler industry, Indian Yamaha Motor (IYM) is strengthening its foothold in the country. With four new launches across different categories in less than a year and the easy availability of finance through the company?s financing arm Busan Auto Finance, the company has managed to achieve its target for the Indian market as well as doubled its market share in the country.

?The recently launched R15, FZ16 and the Gladiator SS and RS has seen a tremendous response vis-?-vis other bikes in the segment and this will enable us to achieve our sales target of 1.4 lakh units by the end of this year,? says Sanjay Tripathi, division head (product planning), India Yamaha Motor.

According to Tripathi, FZ-16 has raced to the second position in the 150cc segment in November, just a month after its launch and is ahead of Hero Honda CBZ, Hunk, Apache and Unicorn. In fact, the bike has overtaken even Pulsar 150 in the states of Maharastra, MP and Kerala and has gained 17.5% of the market share in the 150cc segment last month.

?Yamaha bikes are also available at 13% rate of interest from Busan Auto Finance and this has given a boost to our total sales, especially at a time when major financial institutions have withdrawn from the two-wheeler financing business. Consequently, our market share in the motorcycle segment have gone up from 2% last year to 3.9% till the end of November at 16,701 units out of the total 4,31,171 units sold in the country last month. Out of the total Yamaha bikes sold in the county, over 15% are financed through Busan Auto Finance.

The company had forayed into high-end sport bikes in December last year and here too the numbers are way above the original estimates. India Yamaha has so far sold 107 units of R1 and MT 01, prices at Rs 10.5 lakh and sold in the country as completely build units, as against the original estimate of 50 bikes.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers?, sales of motorcycles decline by 20.2% at 4,31,171 units in November as compared to 5,40,553 units during the same month last year. Even the overall two-wheeler industry registered a dip of 14.7% at 5,67,502 units vis-?-vis 6,65,181 units in November 2007.