Yamaha Car Development Plans Reportedly Shelved: According to recent reports, Yamaha has officially suspended all its car development plans since the brand feels that it is difficult to offer a unique selling point to its customers for the cars the brand was planning to launch in collaboration with Gordon Murray Design.
Amidst the recent decision, the audience will no longer be able to witness the production variants of Yamaha Motiv and Sports Ride Concept unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
Both the concept cars from the Japanese manufacturer were based on Murray’s iStream manufacturing system. The Sports Ride Concept featured a coupe-like design in addition to getting a ton of carbon fibre detailing that further promised better rigidity in addition to offering a good power-to-weight ratio.
Both the concept cars were promised to be equipped with a turbocharged, three-cylinder, 1.0-litre petrol engine. The Motiv was able to offer a maximum power of 76HP while the Sports Ride promised more power at around 100HP. The McLaren F1 designer Murray has earlier promised 1,000 and 3,50,000 of production cars to be easily developed with the iStream system.
The decision to shelve all the plans for the production variants of the concept cars was announced by the brand at the Tokyo Motor Show 2019. The brand is now focusing on smaller motorcycle concepts and has suspended all other concept projects for the time being.
Commenting on the decision, Yamaha spokesman Naoto Horie stated – “That is a decision taken by President Hidaka for the foreseeable future, as we could not see a way to develop either car to make it stand out from the competition, which is very strong. The sportscar, in particular, had great appeal for us, as enthusiasts; but the marketplace is particularly difficult. We now see other opportunities.”
Adding to his statement, Mr Norris commented: “Cars do not feature in our long-term plans anymore.”