![]() | « Back to article | Print this article |
Yamaha might launch the R25 in India as a CKD product, resulting in a price tag of Rs 3 lakh, says Faisal Ali Khan of MotorBeam.com.
One of the most awaited bikes of 2014, the Yamaha R25 was launched in Indonesia a few months back. The bike has received a terrific response in that country, so much so that Yamaha got 2500 bookings in less than 24 hours.
The automaker has made Indonesia the global production hub for Yamaha R25 and plans to send the bike to 30 countries from there, including its home turf, Japan.
By early 2015, the R25 will be exported to 14 countries across the globe. The vehicle saw such terrific response in Indonesia that export plans were postponed by a few months.
There is some good and bad news. The good news is, Yamaha is likely to launch the R25 in India in early 2015.
The bad news is, Yamaha might go the CKD route, which means lack of local production leading to an increase in price of the vehicle.
Currently most high selling performance bikes in India are locally manufactured, like the KTM Duke 200 and 390, Honda CBR250R and CBR150R, Yamaha R15 and Pulsar 200 NS.
By locally manufacturing products, companies are able to price them aggressively.
The Yamaha R25 isn't new to us Indians.
After Yamaha unveiled the concept version last year, the automaker brought the same to India and displayed it at the 2014 Auto Expo.
However there has been no word about when the launch will happen although plans to compete in the 250cc segment are there since all Japanese companies plan to enter in this growth segment.
Suzuki recently launched the Inazuma and gave it a massive price cut of Rs 1 lakh while Honda plans to bring in the CBR300R.
Kawasaki already sells the Ninja 300 in India which hasn't found many buyers due to the high price. Kawasaki brings the Ninja 300 to India via the CKD route and with Yamaha planning the same, expect the R25 to cost upwards of Rs 3 lakh in the country.
The Yamaha R25 is a quarter-litre machine which is powered by a 249cc, parallel-twin engine that employs liquid-cooling. It produces 36 PS of peak power at 12,000 RPM while peak torque is rated at 22.6 Nm.
The bike isn't offered with ABS yet and the 8-valve motor is known to be very high-revving.