Superbike manufacturers such as Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha have been taken aback by the response their high-end machines have received way up in the mountains. The manufacturers are reporting decent sales figures of their high-end bikes from Northern and North-Eastern parts of the country.

Atul Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing and Sales, Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited -

Much to our astonishment, 10% of superbikes have been bought by highlanders in Dehradun and Guwahati

The general trend among big bike manufacturers is to focus mainly on customers from metro cities, since these customers are the ones who are most likely to have the moolah to splurge on these exquisite machines. Manufacturers see Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore as the regions with the highest demand for their high-end bikes, but this recent statistic of good contributions from the mountainous regions has taken them by surprise.

Manufacturers attribute the good sales of their high end machines to the steadily rising disposable income and the availability of easy financing services. The presence of a well-trained service network and hassle free support for the bikes is also one of the factors pushing up sales of these bikes.

N.K Rattan, Head, Marketing and Sales, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India -

We have special teams to service these bikes across the country. This has boosted the confidence of the consumer, and has translated into better sales

Pankaj Dubey, Head, Marketing and Sales, India Yamaha Motor -

The actual numbers coming from the north-east mountain region are not as significant as the metros, but they are crucial. For this super-niche segment every unit sold makes a lot of difference to our sales strategy.

Though manufacturers have been surprised by the numbers reported from the mountains, the metros still lead the sales charts. Mumbai accounts for every 1 out three superbikes sold in the country, followed by Delhi and Bangalore, which account for around 20 % of the total sales of these bikes in the country.

The superbike market in India began to boom only when Yamaha brought in its YZF-R1 and MT-01 into the country during the year 2008. This was followed by launches from rival manufacturers such as Suzuki and Honda who brought in products such as the CBR 1000RR Fireblade, CB 1000R, Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa and the Suzuki Intruder.

The Hayabusa has gone onto take the lead in the superbike sales charts with a sales figure of 108 units till date. It has also enabled Suzuki to go atop the manufacturers sales chart ranking, leaving Yamaha and Honda to bring up the rear of the pack.

The superbike space in India has all the global majors presently in it except Kawasaki, who only have the Ninja 250R as their sole offering to Indian customers. But, this could change in the very near future, with Kawasaki setting up its Indian subsidiary and having said that customers in India can expect bigger and more powerful bikes from their international range very soon.

Source - Economic Times

Here are some more images of the 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. The image which we  revealed yesterday was the only official image of the bike released by Kawasaki until now. These new images are of the bike being tested at Japan’s Suzuka race circuit, in order for the Kawasaki engineers to prep up the bike for the assault on next season’s World Superbike Championship title.

The 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R has been developed from the grounds up by Kawasaki, by starting the bike’s design with a clean sheet of paper. The bike shares nothing in common with the old Ninja ZX-10R. The new bike features all-new mechanicals such as the Chassis, Swingarm, Engine and Electronics.

Kawasaki will be banking on this bike to bring it back to the glory days when it was considered as a stiff rival to the likes of Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. The bike will have stiff competition to contend with from home turf as well as abroad, with BMW’s S1000RR superbike currently ruling the roost. The bike will be launched internationally sometime next year and Indian enthusiasts who want one could get a taste of this machine once Bajaj alongwith Kawasaki decides to bring it in to give fight to the offerings from Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha in India.

2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R Suzuka Track Test Image Gallery

Source – Visor Down

Yamaha has plans to make India the global hub for its premium motorcycles. The company which currently has two manufacturing facilities located in Noida and Surajpur, plans to use the facilities to the maximum possible level in order to produce bikes for export markets.

Yamaha’s Indian arm, India Yamaha Motor (IYM) contributed 66,904 bikes to Yamaha’s global operations in the 2009-2010 period. In the previous year the Indian arm had a contribution of only 38,639 units.

The export lineup of the company includes the Crux, G5, Alba, Enticer, Gladiator Type SS, FZ-16 and the YZF-R15. The company currently exports its Indian made bikes to countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya and Colombia.

The company had a 73 % growth in exports during the previous financial year and foresees an even greater demand for its products in export markets this year.

Yamaha in India has had a great run ever since it has launched its flagship YZF-R15 and FZ-16 into the Indian market in 2008. The company’s sales figures have been steadily on the rise since the launch of these products and with these bikes also doing well in export markets, Yamaha can look forward to healthier sales figures in the coming months.

Source – Motor Beam

India Yamaha Motor (IYM) plans to double its dealer network over the next five years in India. This move comes on the back of Yamaha’s plans to delve deeper into the Indian rural market.

IMB had earlier reported about Yamaha’s strategy to drive deeper into rural markets, in order to boost sales and drive growth. This move to double the dealer network is a part of Yamaha’s aggressive rural market strategy.

Yamaha will have to do more than just expand its dealer network into smaller town and cities, since the main factor driving sales in rural areas is the word-of-mouth. When it comes to word-of-mouth, Hero Honda has a distinct advantage. Yamaha will have to come up with some sort of a counter measure to disrupt the faith which customers in rural markets have about the Hero Honda brand name.

Source – Bloomberg Businessweek

India Yamaha Motor Limited is drawing up aggressive plans to penetrate into the country’s rural two-wheeler market in order to increase sales and drive growth. The company plans to use its newly launched 110 cc bike YBR 110 along with its other 100 cc offering the Cruz to dig deeper into rural markets.

Pankaj Dubey, National Business Head, India Yamaha Motor (IYM) -

Rural markets are the growth drivers for any company and we are no different. Yamaha has already penetrated into the entry level segment and has been successful in all its ventures. To tap this potential segment, we are focusing on increasing our network strength in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and increasing our sub-dealers in rural areas

This move is a radical departure from Yamaha’s previous strategy of concentrating mainly on urban markets with little or no focus on rural markets. This announcement shows how important the rural market has become for sales of two-wheelers and now each and every manufacturer is talking about expanding further into rural areas to drive sales and growth.

Source – Business Standard Motoring

The legendary RX 100 might make a come back soon. The company is deciding to re-launch the model and is currently working on the initial specs of the bike.

Yamaha RX 100 doesn’t need an introduction to the Indian motorcyclists. Yamaha’s most successful and loved bike was  launched in 1985 in collaboration with Escorts Ltd but due to strict emission norms coming into place the bike had to be phased out in 1996 due to its failure of meeting these norms.

Pankaj Dubey, national business head, India Yamaha Motor-

We are working on the lines of the RX 100 and are looking to have something of a similar product for India. It will be early to talk about it but we will come out with a product there.We cannot launch the RX  100 with a two-stroke engine but we are working on a four-stroke version for the bike

This would mean that RX 100 will be a 4-stroke motorcycle complying with BS-IV emission norms which come into effect in a few months time. If this bike is launched at a price of a entry level bike then its surely going to improve the sales for the company.

The demand of this legendary motorcycle is still present in the resale market, however their proud owners doesn’t want to sell their RX 100 because of their attachment to this bike. Even I own a 1989 RX 100 which I never want to sell!

If the company is able to provide a product which if not exactly but somewhat similar to the RX 100 then they will succeed in capturing the heart of the buyers. But can a 4-stroke do what a 2-stroke can?

Source: Business Standard

Finally all the speculations have come to an end regarding the new launches from Yamaha at the auto-expo 2010. It was great anticipation among the Indian bikers who are Yamaha fans that a 250cc bike is definitely up on the cards but it was not there. May be a 250cc is still in the pipeline but not soon enough.

Yamaha launched two if its model at the auto expo, the 2010 YZF-R1 and the special edition 2010 R15. Yamaha’s brand ambassador John Abraham was present for the launch of 2010 YZF-R1 who was also given a certificate of being the “Advisor to India Yamaha Motor” in order to support the company in achieving their goals.

The other launch which happened at the event was the 2010 special edition R15. This special edition R15 has a white-red paint scheme. The other significant change in the bike is the exhaust which now sports a metallic silver look instead of the traditional black finish exhaust. All the other specs apart from the paint job remain the same for R15. This special edition R15 should be available from February this year.

Addressing the media, Mr. Yukimine Tsuji, CEO, India Yamaha Motors said that the company has a sales target of 3 lakhs in 2010. The focus will be continued on the 150cc+ segment to achieve a 25% share target in 2010. The company will also have the commuter segment as a focus area. The company will be working hard to make Yamaha the exclusive trusted motorcycle brand in India.

The company is also targeting at making all of its dealers as Yamaha Bike Station by the year 2012, as of now there are around 100 Yamaha Bike Station across the country. Yamaha is also stressing on safe riding and will be organizing such events to educate the riders on safety.

Apart from the models from the Indian market, international models like FZ1, Fazer (1000cc) YZR-M1( Rossi edition), 500cc TMAX sports scooter and 600cc XJ6 motorcycle were also on display. Yamaha also displayed some interesting concept models from the commuter section which might be called Yamaha SZ and Yamaha YBR. Although not many details were disclosed about these concept models but I have a feeling that these might be the next models Yamaha is planning to launch in the commuter section to strengthen their grip in the market.

Personally, I expected a lot more from Yamaha at the auto-expo. My expectation was that they would repeat what they did in the 2008 auto-expo when they surprised everyone with their YZF-R15 and FZ-16. To conclude, the special edition R15 which had nothing special about it except for the paint scheme and the 2010 YZF-R1 is beyond the reach of majority of the Indian customers. In the end I’m still waiting to see a 200 or 250cc motorcycle from Yamaha for the Indian bike enthusiasts!

Yamaha Motorcycles at Auto Expo 2010