Two-wheelers manufacturer India Yamaha Motor on Saturday said it is recalling 56,082 units of its scooter ‘Ray’, after it detected insufficient strength in the handlebar of some scooters due to inadequate welding.

The company said it has taken this voluntary step as there is a chance that this might impact the steering operation in extreme cases. As a part of an exercise to rectify the problem, the company will reach out to each individual customer in possession of such scooter to process the recall, it said in a statement.

“We have sold around 90,000 units of Ray scooter since its launch in September last year, out of which many numbers were identified to be faulty during one of the field studies,” a company spokesperson told Business Line .

However, the recall is subject to Ray Scooters only and not the recently launched ‘Ray Z’ scooters, which are unaffected by this potential problem, the company said.

“During the study of the product the company found that the handlebar fitted in few Ray scooters were affected by this potential issue.

Having identified all such vehicles with this issue, Yamaha has therefore, decided to voluntarily replace the handlebar in all such scooters, which will be free of charge,” it said.

The company said it plans to begin the recall exercise voluntarily from Saturday through the ‘Ray Refresh Campaign’, which will be run through the company’s 400 dealership networks across the country. The customers will be contacted through mail as well as phone calls to replace the affected part through this campaign.

It launched the Ray citing the growing demand for compact and easy-to-use gearless scooter, especially for women. It was first scooter model for the Indian market by the Yamaha brand.

This is the second such recalls in the Indian auto industry when the sales are down. Ford India had early this month recalled 972 units of its recently launched SUV EcoSport because of the default in ‘Glow Plug Module' of the diesel 1.5L version.

>ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in