Yamaha & Mitsui come together to produce bikes for India

Yamaha Motor, the world’s second-largest motorcycle maker, will set up a joint venture with Mitsui to produce motorcycles in India.

Yamaha plans to replace its money-losing Indian motorcycle business with the new venture, called India Yamaha Motor, the Japan-based company said in a statement filed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. The unit will begin operating in April. The motorcycle maker said last month it will invest $174 million in the next three years to bolster business in India, where its sales trail behind bigger rival Honda Motor. The tie-up follows Mitsui, Japan’s second- largest trading company, buying a 3 per cent stake in Yamaha Motor last year.

“The reason for dissolving the old unit is because it has had losses since at least 2001," Yamaha spokesman Takashi Kitagawa said at a press briefing on Wednesday. “The company will rebuild the unit with help of Mitsui."

Motorcycle makers are building more factories and introducing new models in India as economic growth boosts demand in the world’s second-largest motorcycle market. Yamaha had forecast motorcycle demand in India to increase to 9.1 million units in 2010 from 7.3 million units last year. The Indian unit posted an operating loss of 8.8 billion yen in 2007. Mitsui, Japan’s second-largest trading company, bought a 3 per cent stake in Yamaha Motor last year. The two companies set up a team to discuss joint programs including purchasing and distribution.

Tokyo-based Mitsui will take a 30 per cent stake in the new Indian venture, Yamaha Motor said. India Yamaha Motor will utilize the same factory and office facilities used by its predecessor Yamaha Motor India., the statement said. Yamaha manufactures motorcycles in the country at Surajpur, near New Delhi in the north. Yamaha currently employs about 2000 employees in India.

TVS planning LPG, CNG bikes

The alternative fuel fever has caught up with Chennai-based TVS Motor Company, synonymous with ‘TVS Scooty’. Having entered the electric scooter segment, the company is exploring LPG and CNG two wheelers.

S Srinivas, general manager, marketing, TVS Motor Company, said that the company has been looking at LPG and CNG-run motorcycles, scooters and scooterettes. The company has its R & D centre at Hosur near Bangalore.

However, a time frame for entering the new segments has not been decided yet. The company’s first foray into alternative fuels has begun with ‘Scooty Teenz Electric’ which will make its debut at Ahmedabad.

Rolled out from the company’s Mysore plant, the 800 watt scooter generates an average range of 40 kms per nine hours of charge. This can increase by 50 per cent if the rider opts for lower speeds by using a feature called Range Selector.

Priced at Rs 32,500 (ex-showroom Ahmedabad), the vehicle comes with a load carrying capacity of 130 kgs with a pillion rider. The lead-acid batteries used for the vehicle are tested to last for 1.5 years if the user’s riding average is 25 kms. The company has decided to launch the vehicle at Ahmedabad owing to the high concentration of two wheelers in the city and female riders.

To start with, TVS expects the vehicle to sell around 500 units in Ahmedabad. Following its launch in other western states and other parts of the country by April, the sales are expected to touch 8000 units. The Scooty Teenz petrol has sold 800 units a month in Ahmedabad and is priced at Rs 25,000.

News : Hero Honda reduces prices of bikes

Subsequent to the announcement of the excise duty cut in the Union Budget, Hero Hero on Friday announced a reduction in the prices of its motorcycles in the range of Rs 1,000- Rs 3,400 across all its models. In response to the budget, earlier during the day, Hero Honda Managing Director, Mr Pawan Munjal had said "It is an extremely well-alanced budget. The excise duty cut will be passed on to the consumers."

TVS files plea in HC seeking to set aside single judge order on Flame

TVS Motor Company Limited on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Madras High Court, seeking to set aside a single judge order restraining it from manufacturing, marketing, selling and exporting two or three wheelers with an internal combustion engine, infringing Bajaj Auto's patent.

The appeal is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow. Justice P Jyothimani had on February 16 granted an interim injunction on an application filed by Bajaj Auto Limited, Pune, restraining TVS Chennai from using the technology in any manner and invention described in the patent.

In its appeal, TVS submitted that the single judge failed to consider the specific pleading and evidence adduced by it to show that TVS Flame 125 model was based on adoption of the twin spark plug arrangement patented by Honda in US.

"The functioning of the three valve arrangement was based on the patent granted in favour of AVL in US, licensed to TVS by AVL. The entire IC engine of TVS was distinct from the Bajaj patent and thus does not at all infringe the Bajaj patent specifications and claims of Bajaj," it said.

The judge failed to note that in the absence of Bajaj making out any case of infringement or satisfying the prescribed test, an injunction cannot be granted, TVS contended.

The judge did not apply the correct test of comparing Bajaj's claim as envisaged in its patent specification with the product of TVS, it said.

"The judge failed to note that Bajaj filed the suit without seeing the TVS product and the allegations of infringement were based on guess work. Having come to the conclusion that there are triable issues, the judge ought to have relegated the parties to the trial," TVS said.

- Economic Times

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