Yamaha taking a small car route

Yamaha is planning to move from a background role in car manufacturing to a bona-fide one in its own right, the company's president said last week.

Hiroyuki Yanagi told Japanese publication Nikkei last week that Yamaha plans to start making and selling small cars in Europe by 2019, in both electric and petrol-powered forms. A one-litre petrol engine will be developed in-house – what's wrong with the new R1 donk? – while the company will buy in motors and batteries for the electric side of the equation.

Yamaha will become the ninth Japanese automaker. The company chose Europe as the first market because of suitable city planning. It has yet to decide the proposed plant's location and output capacity, but investment will be in the millions of dollars.

Yamaha is already involved in the car industry thanks to its tie-up with Toyota, which dates back to 1964. During that time, Yamaha has supplied more than three million engines to Toyota, with its powerplant currently used in models sold under Toyota's high-end Lexus brand. Toyota has a 3.6 per cent stake in Yamaha. Additionally, it has developed the SHO V6 engine for Ford and Volvo's 4.4-litre V8, which in 5.0-litre form and further modified, powers the Volvo S60s running in V8 Supercars.

According to research company IHS (formerly RL Polk), global automobile output will rise by 21 million units by 2021, bolstered by brisk demand in emerging markets – with small cars a huge part of that. And Yamaha wants a slice of the pie as some people begin to discard their motorcycles and look to buy into the car market.

Yamaha unveiled a prototype car at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013, but this is the first time it has outlined business specifics. Yamaha's arch-rival, Honda, began making cars in 1963.