Japanese bike maker, Yamaha has established a new company, Yamaha Motor Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd. (YMRI) in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh. This new R& D centre will become the motorcycle R&D headquarters in India and is intended to increase Yamaha’s manufacturing competitiveness in the country. The function of the India Procurement Center established last year has been transferred and incorporated into the new company, and will now operate as the India Integrated Development Center.
YMRI was established in February this year to function as the core of the second Integrated Development Center, following the establishment of the ASEAN Integrated Development Center in Thailand last year. The YMRI will be the fifth overseas R&D headquarters for Yamaha Motor Group following Italy, Taiwan, China, and Thailand.
The new Integrated Development Center aims to contribute to India’s operations by “change drawings”, tailoring reforms to design, maintenance, and production standards, optimizing them to fit the Indian market and provide low-cost models to customers.
The new centre will assist to develop models intended for the Indian market and Global market, based on model platforms developed in Japan.
The motorcycle market in India has been growing constantly in recent years owing to political and economic stability and financial growth – the market scale reached around 14 million units in 2012 overtaking China to become the world’s largest motorcycle market. The market is expected to grow further, reaching 16 million units in 2015.
