Could The Yamaha Tracer Finally Be Coming To India?

A fine addition to Yamaha India's limited range of bikes.

By: Enrico Punsalang

May 24, 2021 at 9:45pm ET

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India has long missed out on Yamaha's premium offerings such as its heavy-hitting 700cc and 900cc range of bikes which have enjoyed success all over the world. Yamaha hasn't been able to sell these bikes in India due to the high prices brought about the company's CBU (completely-built-unit) approach when importing motorcycles. As a result, it wouldn't be able to compete with aggressively priced competitors which see local assembly.

With news going around that the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer plans to launch the highly successful MT-07 naked sportbike in India by October or November this year, another move by Yamaha raises speculations that it could soon be revamping its premium model range in the country. Yamaha India recently trademarked the Tracer name for the local market. Now, if that means what we're thinking, then we can surely expect to see either the Tracer 700 or Tracer 900, or maybe even both, finally make their debut in India.

What do you think?

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If—and that's a big if, Yamaha does bring the Tracer range of bikes into India, it would certainly give bikes like the Kawasaki Versys 650 and even more premium models like the Ducati Multistrada a run for their money. Both the Tracer 700 and Tracer 900 GT are derived from their more barebones stablemates, the MT-07 and MT-09 respectively. The more beginner-friendly and affordable Tracer 700 gets a 689cc crossplane parallel-twin engine, while the bigger, more powerful Tracer 900 GT gets the CP3 inline-three-cylinder motor found in the MT-09.

Now, just because Yamaha has trademarked the Tracer name for India, doesn't mean that the sport-tourer is guaranteed to land on local shores. There is also a very big possibility that nothing would come out of this trademark, as companies very often file for multiple trademarks across several markets, as these could come in handy for strategic and marketing purposes. That said, there could also be a possibility that a small-capacity sport-tourer specific to the Indian market could bear the Tracer name.