Yamaha plans to enter into Indian EV industry, develops EV platform

After a long wait, the ICE segment leading company, Yamaha, has finally decided to step into the EV market with its plan to locally develop an EV platform in India. 

According to a report by AutoCar, the chairman of Yamaha Motor India, Itaru Otani, has stated that although a final decision has not yet been made, the brand plans to eventually enter the Indian EV market in the upcoming years.

However, no precise timeline was disclosed, and it remained unclear if the local or global electric car platform being developed would be the focus.

The Bengaluru-based EV company River, the manufacturer of the Indie e-scooter, recently received funding from Yamaha. For its next EV models in India, the business is also investigating the viability of utilizing River Indie's platform, Otaani stated further.

According to Otani, meeting customer expectations in India's EV market is difficult. For those who are unfamiliar, Yamaha will begin selling the Neo e-scooter in several European markets in 2022. In Japan, it has also conducted a proof-of-concept study on the River Indie. At the moment, Indian electric car manufacturers are concentrating on offering their clients a reasonably priced product.

Yamaha, on the other hand, is reportedly going in a different direction since it plans to introduce a high-performance model in the nation. This strategy is justified by the company's belief—which is, to a large part, also true—that performance-oriented vehicles better reflect its brand image. Yamaha is attempting to overcome this obstacle, though, because performance-based e-scooters require large battery packs, which drive up pricing.

“At this moment, most of the Indian EV market consists of small scooters. We are considering performance-oriented electric scooters, as that aligns with Yamaha’s brand. However, high performance means bigger batteries, which are expensive. This is one of the challenges we are evaluating,” citing Otani, Autocar reported.