Yamaha R3 India launch timelines have been revealed by the company chairman – and that includes the MT03 as well – but there is an issue…
It is very well known that Yamaha has finalized its plans to bring the YZF-R3 to India but when??? has been a point of discussion since the last many months. However, fresh new details emanating out of a report from a reputed magazine spills the beans.
According to a report at Autocar, Yamaha India’s chairman Eishin Chihana has disclosed that the company plans to introduce the new YZF R3 in India by the end of this financial year 2024 – which means we are looking at a timeframe between December 2023 to March 2024.
The company is discussing the MT03’s introduction as well. The naked sibling will also be launched, however will it come alongside the R3 or at a separate date has not been confirmed.
We now know Yamaha’s plans regarding its 300cc motorcycles for India, however, there is a caveat. The Jap will first bring the R3 and MT03 as CBUs – Completely Built Units from Indonesia. CBUs attract insane taxation which simply means that the prices, at launch, could be heart-breaking for many.
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The current equivalent Ninja 300 costs around Rs 3.40 Lac and the R3 was placed over it when it was available here. Which means that it could cost around or over that Rs 4 lakh mark – and that is not a very good news. But what is relieving to know is that Yamaha does have plans to shift to CKD (completely knocked down units) assembly after some time (but that, I believe, could be based on the response the motorcycles get).
For reference, the new R3 comes with USD forks, LED headlamps, LCD display, etc and comes powered by the same 321 cc parallel twin engine that churns 42 PS of peak power and 29.5 Nm of max torque.
So, the question, then, is – how much are you willing to pay to own the R3? It was partly because of its price that the R3 couldn’t make its mark in the first innings in India. Is Yamaha going to commit the same mistake or do you think that the market has now evolved….?
If you want to know how good (or bad) the R3 was when it was here, check out our review. And if you are feeling bored, check out the following, very interesting story that we did back in 2017….
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