The Yamaha MT-03 India launch is unlikely to happen as the Japanese automaker doesn’t have any plans to launch the street-fighter version of the R3.
Rumours, they can be difficult to catch. Remember prior to the 2016 Auto Expo, news of the the Yamaha MT-03 being launched in India was all over the internet but nothing happened. Then news came along that the Yamaha MT-03 will go on sale by Diwali and that too has come and gone and the latest from Yamaha is the Ray-ZR. Now a source close to Yamaha has cleared the air around the launch of the MT-03, they have no plans to launch it in India.
Yamaha won’t be launching any new product in 2016 while plans for 2017 haven’t been finalised yet. Considering the MT-03 is the street-fighter version of the R3, the former is likely to receive a tepid response as the R3’s sales have fallen by 65% in September 2016 (when compared to the same time period last year).
Yamaha sold just 90 units of the R3 in September 2016 while in September 2015, it sold 256 units. Meanwhile Kawasaki managed to sell 68 units of the Ninja 300 in September 2016 and in the same month, KTM sold 631 units of the Duke and RC 390 combined. With the Austrian automaker announcing the 2017 KTM Duke 390, it makes good sense for Yamaha to shelve launch plans of the MT-03 in India. Not to forget, BMW is also bringing the much anticipated G310R.
Powering the Yamaha MT-03 is the same engine as the R3 which is a 321cc, parallel-twin unit that belts out 42 PS of power and 29.6 Nm of torque. The naked derivative of the R3 would have been priced at least Rs. 40,000/- less than the full-faired version due to fewer body parts, attracting more buyers to Yamaha’s fold.
Yamaha MT-03 India Launch
– The MT-03 won’t be launched in India anytime soon
– Lacklustre sales of the R3 is reason enough to not launch the street-fighter
– Yamaha to continue its focus on the commuter segment
– The Yamaha MT-03 was rumoured to be launched in India multiple times
Source – Auto.NDTV.com
