Yamaha Motor India has been slowly but steadily adding new products under its scooter range. It first started with the Ray, which was followed by the Ray Z and the Alpha that was launched at the 2014 Auto Expo. All of these scooters had one thing in common – its engine capacity. All are 110cc scooters and now Yamaha is planning to add a 125cc scooter in its portfolio.
Autocar professional has reported that the Japanese manufacturer will enter the 125cc scooter segment by June 2015 which is currently dominated by the Suzuki Access and the recently launched Honda Activa 125. This upcoming scooter has been codenamed 04X and will be manufactured in the company’s upcoming facility in Chennai. This new facility is expected to begin production from November this year with the Alpha being the first scooter to make its way out of the assembly line. The Chennai facility will start producing the 125cc scooter in April 2015 and aims to manufacture around 120,000 units of the scooter annually.
Currently there are not many details about the scooter, but as per reports the upcoming scooter could be based on the Nozza Grande that will be launched in Vietnam in the next few days. This scooter has been developed for Asian markets and the chances of an Indian version are very high. Once launched, the 125cc scooter will compete with the Honda Activa 125. Interestingly, Yamaha India has imported the Delight 115cc scooter for homologation and it was spied inside the ARAI facility. There could be a possibility of this scooter making its way to India as well but the timelines are still not decided. But based upon the company’s decision to focus on scooters till 2015, we can expect more news from this segment.
