Yamaha Invests In EV Startup River To Boost Presence In India

The move is part of Yamaha’s goal of achieving carbon-neutrality by 2050.

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Enrico Punsalang

By: Enrico Punsalang

Feb 8, 2024 at 2:59am ET

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India is one of the biggest motorcycle markets in the entire world thanks to its massive population and dense urban environment. Because of these factors, along with many more, hitting the road on two wheels in India simply makes sense. With the advent of electric two-wheelers, more and more people have made the shift to electric, bringing forth lots of newcomers in the electric motorcycle and scooter game.

Indeed, we’ve talked about a lot of India-based startups looking to make it big, and it seems that World of River, a company we’ve talked about in the past, might have just struck gold. This gold comes in the form of an investment from none other than Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, as part of River’s Series B funding campaign. We know that Yamaha has quite a few initiatives in the electric scene, and it’s clear that its investment in River means that Yamaha wants to strengthen its grasp on the growing Indian market.

The River Indie is touted as an SUV electric scooter.

The River Indie boasts lots of luggage space and boxy, rugged bodywork.

At present, River markets the Indie electric scooter in India, a model it claims is the “SUV of Scooters.” It’s easy to see why this is the case, as the scooter boasts a rugged design accentuated by boxy bodywork and tall ground clearance. Just like your SUV, the Indie is also very practical, boasting lots of storage space with 55 liters of cargo space under the saddle, as well as a glove compartment up front for quick-access essentials. There are even luggage racks on the sides of the scooter, allowing riders to mount saddlebags or panniers for even more storage.

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The scooter platform makes use of a 6.7-kilowatt electric motor that produces around nine horsepower giving it a top speed of 56 miles per hour. As for the battery, it’s rocking a 4kWh power pack which River claims provides a single-charge range of just 75 miles.

As for Yamaha’s investment in River, this aligns not only with Yamaha’s goals of expanding into greener mobility, but also with India’s push for electrification, in particular, incentivizing companies for domestic production. As we discussed in the past, Yamaha hopes to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire supply chain by 2050 – quite an ambitious goal, but surely, small initiatives add up to big changes over time.