After mopeds, bicycles.
Yamaha began manufacturing motors for electric bicycles in its French factory in Saint-Quentin (Aisne), a historic production site for Motobécane and Mobylette.
The Japanese motorcycle brand inaugurated this Wednesday an assembly line for motors for electric bicycles which should strengthen it on the European market, facing sector giants Bosch and Shimano.
Yamaha engines, of which 8 million units have already been manufactured in Japan and Taiwan, will be fitted in the coming weeks to the bicycles of its main customer, the European number one in bicycles Accell, sold under the Winora or Batavus brands.
In an old hangar, on the immaculate assembly line, around fifteen operators assemble engines whose parts all come from Japan, for the moment.
At the end of the line, a robot applies a silicone seal, and a camera checks the conformity of the motor, before a leak test.
Yamaha is targeting an annual production of 100,000 mid-range “Pw S2” engines on this line, and potentially 300,000 engines if the market continues to grow.
After exploding during the Covid pandemic, the bicycle market has been at a low for several months.
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The booming electric bike market
But electrically assisted bicycles now represent a quarter of the 20 million bicycles sold each year in Europe, the world's largest market, and their share continues to grow.
“
It was time for Yamaha to invest in Europe, as close as possible to the markets
,” said Éric de Seynes, former CEO who became chairman of the supervisory board of Yamaha Motor Europe, during the inauguration.
“
It’s a first stone in the building.
But a cornerstone, which opens up to a multiplicity of technologies
, according to Éric de Seynes.
We affirm our role in the group.
»
The Saint-Quentin factory has manufactured millions of mopeds under the Motobécane then MBK brand.
In difficulty, the factory was taken over in 1986 by Yamaha.
Since the cessation of small scooters (including the Booster) in 2017, the factory's 639 employees and 200 temporary workers have been manufacturing 125 and 700 cc motorcycles like the Ténéré, and the X-Max scooter, at a rate of 80,000 two -wheels per year.
The factory has hired 100 people in 2022 and 2023 to ramp up.
Yamaha invested four million euros in the new bicycle engine assembly line, and received 530,000 euros in subsidies from the Hauts-de-France region.