Sensing the market movement towards low-cost bikes, Yamaha Motor India plans to shift its global research and development (R&D) centre to India for developing low-cost bikes, including manufacturing a bike under $500 for the Indian and African markets.
Company MD Hiroyuki Suzuki has asked all the verticals, spanning across marketing, R&D and product development, to attain breakeven by the end of current financial year.
To begin with, Yamaha will first set up a global procurement centre in India to source and manufacture components for utility sector/low-cost bikes in 100 to 110cc segment as a precursor to setting up a full-fledged R&D centre in India.
Yamaha?s new low-cost bike is expected to be priced at around $500 (R27,500), cheaper than entry-level motorcycle ?Crux?. Hero MotoCorp?s CD Dawn is the cheapest product in the category, starting at R36,300 (ex-showroom, Delhi). Yamaha, at present, has marginal share in the low-cost segment with the ?YBR110? and ?Crux? that together sells 5,000-odd units every month. ? I think such a bike will have a lot of demand in Africa as well as in India,? Suzuki said.