R15 vs Apache? Or FZ vs Apache? At least in sales, the 150cc Yamahas have grown much faster than the TVS’ 150-200cc models in FY23…
Yamaha has, time and again, clarified that it intends to focus only in the 125cc scooters and 150cc motorcycles segment in India. It currently sells two different platforms in the 150cc motorcycle segment. One, that spawns the cost effective FZs and the other the sporty 155 platform on which the R15 and MT15 are based.
This gives it a broad spectrum and its 150cc segment spreads across a big window from Rs 1.16 Lakh till almost Rs 2 Lakh. Within this price band it sells as many as 6-7 different variants of its 150cc motorcycle models. No other maker is present in such a wide price window of 150ccs. And no other maker has such a costly 150cc motorcycle on sale in India.
So, what has this focus given Yamaha? The surprising second spot in the 150-200cc motorcycle sales!
Yes, Yamaha registered a massive growth of 1.15 Lakh units in this segment last fiscal – outpacing every other maker in the country. With total sales of 3,82,843 150cc motorcycles, Yamaha hopped onto the second spot in this segment.
It displaced TVS from this spot that sells a variety of 160cc 2 valve, 4 valve Apaches, 180cc Apache and the Apache 200, by almost 33,000 units. In the previous financial year 2021-22, TVS was ahead of Yamaha by almost 57,000 units. TVS also witnessed growth of about 24,000 units but that wasn’t enough to prevent Yamaha from zooming past.
Bajaj Auto, with its Pulsars and Avengers was the leader of this space and was ahead of Yamaha by almost 44,000 units. To see how other makers like Honda, Hero and Suzuki performed with their Hornets, Xpulses and Gixxers and to see exact sales numbers head to this story.
Despite very high prices of the R15, it continues to sell in insane numbers but we should give it to Yamaha for producing such a gem of a motorcycle. But, with its segment lowest power figures, why are people buying the 150cc FZs in big numbers? What are your views…?
If you want to know the sales split between the FZs and R15s, you can check this article.
Note: We are considering all 148-149cc models as 150s in this story…
