Are You An R15 Fan? Yamaha Has Good News For You

Quick Read: 

• As per a conversation with a media house, Yamaha has reportedly acknowledged that it will not make 100cc-125cc commuter bikes for India

• Apart from the existing 150cc sporty commuter segment, Yamaha is reportedly working on 300+cc bikes for India

Yamaha’s senior vice-president in sales and marketing, Ravindra Singh, in a recent interview with a media house, confirmed that Yamaha will not launch any new motorcycles in the 100-125 cc space in India. This isn’t surprising considering Yamaha hasn’t launched a single commuter bike in that segment after the Yamaha Saluto RX nine years ago. 

Keeping the RX tag in a commuter bike like the Saluto was Yamaha’s biggest mistake in our opinion. Naturally, it didn’t appeal to the masses, and it eventually faded into oblivion in 2020 amidst BS6-emission norms. That pretty much marked the end of the journey for Yamaha in the commuter motorcycle segment. Is it all gloomy? Well, there’s a very bright silver lining…

A New Beginning

While Yamaha isn’t interested in the smaller capacity segment, the brand has not abandoned its core ethos of performance. In fact, it has an even greater focus on this front, and Yamaha’s honcho has reportedly hinted at something for those who are looking to move beyond Yamaha R15 and the Yamaha MT-15. The brand also reportedly emphasised the need to be cost-effective in this endeavour. Obviously, this eliminates the Yamaha MT-03 and the R3 as they are assembled in India, and are powered by sophisticated twin-cylinder liquid-cooled engines.

Yamaha previously had the FZ-25 in the 250cc category, but the model failed to impress the audience and rake in big sales numbers because it came at a time when the market was moving towards the 300cc segment. More importantly, the 250cc Yammie was an air-and-oil-cooled bike which left a lot to be desired in terms of sheer performance. 

Naturally, making a 300cc air-oil-cooled engine will not be a good idea as it will not really justify being an upgrade to Yamaha’s liquid-cooled 150cc bikes. The only logical conclusion we can derive from this situation is that Yamaha could make a 300cc liquid-cooled platform - developed from scratch - specifically for India. As seen in the current lineup, where we get both a supersport and a naked bearing the same engine, the new platform might also follow the same logic. 

That said, the new engine and motorcycles still might be some time away from launch, and we might see test mules with the new platform in the coming months. 

ZigSays

Yamaha’s plans of making 300-odd cc motorcycles seems to be more of a ‘better-late-than-never’ kind of an initiative because the Indian motorcycle segment is currently moving slowly towards 400+cc space. The Triumph 400s, KTM 390s, even Royal Enfield 450s are testament to this progress. That said, if Yamaha manages to get the pricing absolutely bang on, and by that we mean around Rs 2.3 lakh (ex-showroom), only then the brand will have a fighting chance. 

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