New product : Yamaha Developing 250cc Sportbike for India in 2014

Yamaha has been rumored to be working on a 250cc sportbike for quite some time now. In fact, the other three members of the Japanese Big Four have launched new models in the small-displacement segment in recent years, but none of these new generation small-displacement bikes bear Yamaha‘s crossed tuning fork logo.

That may change by 2014 however. After previously stating the company plans to focus on producing scooters for India, Hiroyuki Suzuki, managing director and chief executive officer of India Yamaha tells the Financial Chronicle a sporty 250cc model is on the way.

“We will focus on the scooters category for next two years, but in 2014 we will launch powerful sporty 250cc bike in the Indian market,” Suzuki tells the Financial Chronicle. “There is a good market for this premium segment which we would like to tap.”

Yamaha actually started India’s premium sportbike segment in 2008 with the 150cc YZF-R15 (pictured above). Yamaha updated the India-manufactured R15 for 2012 and expanded sales to Australia and New Zealand and, more recently, to Japan.
Continue Reading »

By: Dennis Chung