K.R. Sridhar in Calcutta on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, May 17: Yamaha Motor India plans to introduce variants of Yamaha G5, CruxS and the recently launched Gladiator by the end of this fiscal. Also, it will invest Rs 300 crore over the next two years for capacity expansion.

The company is surveying the market for a foray into the deluxe segment by the first-half of next year.

“We plan to sell 60,000 units of the Gladiator by the end of 2006. Out of this, 10,000 would be sold from the eastern region. We are targeting 90,000 by the end of 2007,” said K.R. Sridhar, chief general manager, sales and marketing, Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt Ltd.

The company, which has a capacity of 5 lakh units per annum in two shifts, plans to double the capacity in the next two years at an investment of Rs 300 crore.

Yamaha is also planning to bring back Enticer, which was in the market from 2002-04, with an improved 150-cc engine some time next year. It would be priced between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000.

Fraser, the previous 125cc model, was phased out to bring in Gladiator.

The Indian two-wheeler market has grown from 4 million units in 2000 to 7.5 million units in 2005. Out of this, 80 per cent are bikes. The growth over the next five years is expected to be 51 per cent to reach 11 million units by 2010. Of this, bikes would comprise 9 million units.

The executive bike, or the 125cc segment, has witnessed a great leap from 4 per cent in 2000 to 16 per cent in 2005.

Yamaha plans to sell 3.6 lakh units this fiscal, up from 2.5 lakh last year.

Sridhar expects the addition to come from the sale of about 20,000 G5 bikes and 30,000 CruxS.

Yamaha currently exports 60,000 units per annum to markets in Thailand, Columbia, Nepal and Venezuela. The market in Bangladesh is growing.

Yamaha’s market share in the eastern region is currently at 7.5 per cent.