Yamaha Motor has kicked off Project Indra in its endeavour to produce the world’s most affordable motorcycle in India.
Expected to be priced around ₹30,000 the bike will be sold both here and in Africa, identified as one of the future growth regions for Yamaha. It could even be targeted for the ASEAN region and Latin America.
Project Indra (Innovative and New Development based on Responsible Analysis) will involve teams from the company’s manufacturing and R&D operations in India working in tandem with their counterparts in Japan.
It goes in line with the objective of the recently commissioned India Procurement Centre which will oversee supply of parts to Yamaha’s operations across the world. At present, there are 37 vendors who export 130 parts worth ₹60 crore. The target is to increase this to ₹360 crore (60 vendors and 300 parts) by the end of 2016.
These vendors have been trained by Yamaha teams, both from Japan and India, to focus on consistency in quality and competitive prices. This global sourcing exercise will be a critical input to making the affordable bike a reality.
“We are developing the India business aggressively not only for the local market but to support Yamaha operations across the world,” Yury Panteleev, Corporate Group Head of India Yamaha Motor, told Business Line.
If everything goes according to plan, the bike could become a reality by 2016-17. By this time, Yamaha will be on course to producing over two million two-wheelers in India, a three-fold jump from its present numbers.
Project Indra will also go about checking what customers want in an affordable bike, be it styling or mileage, Panteleev added. Yamaha teams are already studying the usage patterns to get critical inputs for this important project.
In a recent visit to India, President & CEO, Hiroyuki Yanagi reiterated that producing the cheapest bike was not the Japanese automaker’s sole goal. “We try to make good products for customers, which includes performance and values,” he said.
While cost and price are “one such value”, Yanagi added that the company would also focus on other parameters like styling, performance and safety. “It just cannot be cost,” he said.
India’s budget bikes today are Hero’s HF Dawn, Bajaj Platina and TVS Star Sport with prices (ex-showroom) in the ₹38,000 to ₹40,000 range. Between them, they clock up sales of over one lakh units each month.