Posted on 02/27/2015 12:26:57 PM PST by nascarnation
Japanese motorcycle giant Yamaha will join the four-wheel market by launching small cars in Europe as early as 2019 to meet rising demand for energy-efficient vehicles, a company official said Friday.
The firm has been mulling manufacturing four-wheel vehicles for years, exhibiting a prototype 1,000 cc engine car and an electric-car battery at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show.
Yamaha is planning to build car plants in Europe to sell them in the region before 2020, the company spokesman said, without elaborating.
"As small cars are already prevalent in Europe, our first car launch will be (there)," he said.
"But we are also studying opportunities in emerging countries" as well, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at hindustantimes.com ...
Little puffs of blue smoke will be blowing out the tailpipe?
Or am I still stuck with 1970’s Yamaha imagery?
Yamaha can call them Kamakazi Karts.
They are really good with engines. Over the years they’ve worked with GM, Ford, Toyota, etc.
They are probably just putting a 4 stroke snowmobile engine in these.
I have always thought that Yamaha was the best of the Japanese manufacturers vs. Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki.
They are incredibly reliable well engineered machines.
Yamaha is good at so much. From musical instruments to stereo equipment to motors.
So, they are 40 years behind Honda, in changing their business model.
It worked for Honda and BMW....
Worked for Suzuki, selling the little Samurais in third world nations.
I still have one of the first ones sold in the USA, after they had been popular for a few years in other countries. Still a reliable little town and offroad runabout after half a million miles, half of them pretty arduous. (did rebuild the engine about ten years ago, and replace the clutch a couple times.)
Yes will be interesting. Once the Chinese get up on plane with competitive offerings, there is going to be a real shootout in the low/mid end of the automotive marketplace.
It worked for Honda and BMW....
My boss has two of those he uses on his farm, just for offroad fun. Loves ‘em.
Honda small engines are good, too. I have had a Honda lawnmower for over fifteen years and I’ve never had to do anything to the engine other than gas it up and change the oil every other summer or so. It just fires up and works.
I remember all the crappy mowers my dad when through trying to find one that would last, and they had all sorts of problems.
Honda outboard motors are also excellent.
I had one of those Samurais in the early 90s. Amazingly tough and dependable little car.
Some ass blew a red light when I had the green and that was the end of that.
Everything Yamaha makes is the highest quality.
I expect that this will not be an exception. It’s probably safer than a motorcycle. I wouldn’t drive it if I had young children, but it looks like you could park it in your office.
I rolled/flipped mine at 70MPH (hit a patch of black ice on an otherwise dry rural highway) on Thanksgiving Day 1990... it rolled back onto its wheels, and I drove away with nothing more than a dented rear corner, and broken window.
Stopped in the next town for a hunk of cardboard and roll of duct tape to patch the window. Finished my expedition, then banged the dent out with a slegehammer and Bondo’ed it up.
I had a job as a Yamaha snowmobile mechanic in the 70’s that helped pay my way through college. Yamahas were the best to work on. I always hated when I had to work on an Artic Cat because they were built with an SAE frame and metric engine that was added to the frame as an after thought. I have owned (and still own) many different Yamaha motorcycles over the years. My daily driver during the warmer months is a 1982 Yamaha 750 Seca.
I have always wished Yamaha would build cars too.
I had a Suzuki Samurai for a few years. It rusted out so bad it wasn’t safe to drive any more. Pieces fell off when I was driving it. Other than that it was fun to own and drive while it lasted.
BMW made aircraft first. But they’ve been making cars since the 20s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.