When Yamaha launched the Ray Z earlier this year, the target customer base was young men.

What the company did not bargain for was the tremendous response from women to this scooter. After all, its earlier sibling, Ray, was introduced in September 2012 for precisely this gender category.

Roy Kurian, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing) of Yamaha’s Indian operations, told Business Line the Ray Z has also taken the lead in scooter sales over the last five months since its launch. The Ray’s share has since fallen to a third of overall numbers.

“The Ray Z was intended for men as part of our business strategy but we now find that young women are making a bigger beeline for the scooter. They really like its looks and power,” added Kurian. The Ray, on the other hand, has become more of the family scooter with an older age profile using it for their daily commute.

Yamaha, of course, has no reason to complain. The focus on scooters is part of its India strategy to build numbers in the commuter segment which its motorcycles could not manage to do. It is also getting increasingly clear that women are an important part of the Indian customer base for scooters.

Yamaha has already indicated that it is looking at one million units in 2015 and the share of scooters could progressively grow with the Ray Z and other new products that will likely follow. India has also been identified as one of the four regions for global procurement of components, the others being Japan, China and ASEAN.

Yet, Yamaha is only too aware that it has a long way to go in building its two-wheeler business here. Its present annual numbers are what market leader, Hero MotoCorp, clocks every month. Likewise, even while the Ray series has got off to a good start with sales of nearly 15,000 units each month, it is still way behind the Honda Activa which does 10 times as much.

“We are aware that there is a lot of hard work ahead but are delighted with customer response to the Ray Z. It clearly shows that the scooter has the basic Yamaha DNA in power and styling,” said Kurian.

And even while the present numbers and market share of barely five per cent look modest, the Japanese two-wheeler maker is eyeing a bigger role for India in the coming years. Indonesia is still its largest market followed by Vietnam but India is rapidly catching up with its operations in Thailand and China.

Africa will be the next priority for Yamaha and it is very likely that India will play a big role in this endeavour. In a recent interview with this paper, Hiroyuki Yanagi, President and CEO of Yamaha Motor, said people in Africa needed low-cost bikes for their personal use. “One product from India could perhaps be used for the African market,” he had said.

>murali.gopalan@thehindu.co.in

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