Yamaha launches scooter for young men

In a bid to shore up its market share in the two-wheeler segment, Japanese auto major Yamaha's Indian subsidiary launched Friday a new variant of its automatic scooter Ray.

According to the company, Ray Z has been developed to target young male users between 16-22 years with the concept of "aggressive sporty design" priced at Rs.48,555 (ex-showroom New Delhi).

The new variant comes a year after the launch of the initial "Ray" model which was developed to target young women. However, Yamaha felt the need to launch a sporty scooter for boys to expand and increase sales in India.

"Identifying the needs of the customers is very important... Boys won't like to drive a scooter meant for girls. Hence, Ray Z has been launched," Roy Kurian, vice president, sales and marketing, Yamaha Motor India, told IANS.

The new model sports the same air-cooled four-stroke 113cc engine with continuous variable transmission with the initial model with a maximum power output of 7.1 PS. The model provides a mileage of 53 km per litre.

The cosmetic changes for the Ray Z includes smoked finish visor upfront, aluminium rear grab bars, instrument panel with carbon fibre patterned background and matching seat cover, and sporty graphics on the body.

The company is currently selling an average of 10,000 Rays every month and is expecting that figure to rise to 15,000 with the addition of Ray Z.

Yamaha motors also launched two new variants of their popular bike series, the SZ, the 'SZ-RR' and the 'SZ-S'.

While the 'SZ-RR' will have sporty styling with highlights like smoked windscreen, aluminium grab bars and a 3D 'SZ' emblem, the 'SZ-S' will be more conventional in design.

The SZ-RR is priced at Rs.62,500 and the SZ-S at Rs.59,500 both (ex showroom Delhi).

The company further said that production at its new manufacturing unit in Chennai will be operational by the second half of 2014. Over one million units are expected to roll out of the new manufacturing facility.

The company currently has two facilities at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana, with a combined installed capacity to roll out six lakh units annually.