Vendors of Japanese two-wheeler major Yamaha Motor are investing ₹1,000 crore to set up base at the company’s vendor park adjoining the new, still-to-be-inaugurated facility in Tamil Nadu.
“Nine vendors are setting up factories in the vendor park beside our plant, and six of these have already started operations,” Ruiji Kawashima, Chief Operating Officer, India Yamaha Motor said.
Some of these are SMEs from Japan and are opening their first overseas factories in India, and seven of the nine had signed MoUs with the Tamil Nadu government, he added.
Kawashima was speaking at a road show organised by the Tamil Nadu government in Pune. This is one of six Indian cities it will travel to in order to attract investments into State.
Yamaha’s new plant, which rolled out its first product from here — the Saluto 125 — motorcycle a couple of days ago, will also make the Ray Z and Alpha scooters.
The initial capacity of the new plant is 4.5 lakh units, and this will be scaled up in stages. “We are targeting 1.8 million units by 2018,” Kawashima said.
The new plant, which has involved an investment of ₹1,500 crore, is still to be formally inaugurated next month. Located on 110 acres, it has an adjoining vendor park on 70 acres. On an average, Yamaha’s two-wheelers built in India have 90-95 per cent local content, the degree varying with the model and location where it is built.