Yamaha to start production at Chennai Factory next month

With the YZF-R3 launched and the facelifted YZF-R15 coming in November, Yamaha seems to be working on strengthening its production facility. The Japanese bike maker is all set to commence production at its new facility in Chennai. This is Yamaha’ third plant in India and will have a capacity of 4,50,000 units. Reports suggest that the company has invested Rs 1,500 crore in setting up this plant and has already begun trial production. 

The inauguration of this new factory is just one step of Yamaha’s expansion plans. The tuning fork brand is aiming to increase its production capacity up to 1.8 million units by 2018. With the launch of the Chennai plant, Yamaha is also looking to increase its exports. It currently sends 1,50,000 units annually and now wants to increase it by another 1,00,000 units this year. Yamaha is also looking at better domestic sales this year. In fact, India is the third largest market after Indonesia and Vietnam. Next year, Yamaha intends to bring India to the second spot. 

The existing two manufacturing facilities have a production capacity of 1 million units and employ 1,800 people.