No impact on sales in RI: Yamaha

No impact on sales in RI: Yamaha

Tetsuya Komatsu and Naoko Fujimura, Bloomberg, Tokyo

Yamaha Motor Co. President Takashi Kajikawa comments on the company's sales in Japan and Indonesia. He also spoke about Yamaha's plan to develop less-polluting motorcycles.

The company, based in central Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture, began sales of the Maxam CP250 powered with a 250 cubic centimeter-engine in April after the Japanese government lifted a ban on having two passengers on a motorcycle of more than 125cc on highways. The model has a low-slung body to ensure stability.

Yamaha is the world's second-largest motorcycle maker after Honda Motor Co. Kajikawa spoke in an interview on Oct. 19 at the Tokyo Motor Show.

"Our scooters powered with a 250cc engine are selling well thanks to deregulation on highway driving by the government. It also introduced automatic transmission-only licenses, and that's increasing the number of people who're getting them. It is also becoming a fashion for driving scooters.

On Indonesia, where the government raised gasoline prices by 88 percent on Oct. 1:

"There has been no impact on our motorcycle sales in Indonesia."

"The pace of growth for industry wide motorcycles demand may slow, as it has been increasing by more than 10 percent annually until last year. Still, we see Indonesia has the potential for demand to increase, given the country's gross domestic product and the number of motorcycle owners at the moment.

"At the moment, our supply isn't enough to meet demand."

On less-polluting motorcycles:

"Hydrogen fuel cells are the ultimate environmentally friendly vehicles. Still, it will take time for them to be widely spread because there's a need for developing infrastructure and technology.

"Until then, we are releasing electric scooters and want to sell gasoline-electric hybrid two-wheel vehicles as soon as possible. We're testing our fuel-cell powered vehicles right now."