Thursday, May 14, 2009

Yamaha Motor Company


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Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.
Type Public
Founded July 1, 1955
Headquarters Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan
Area served Global
Products Vehicles, ATVs, Motorbikes, Vehicle Engines, Personal water craft
Revenue 12 billion US$ (2005)
Operating income 900 million US$ (2005)
Net income 550 million US$ (2005)
Employees 39,300 (2005)
Website Yamaha Motor Global

Yamaha Motor Company Limited (ヤマハ発動機株式会社 Yamaha Hatsudōki Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 7272), a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company (whose HQ is at 2500 Shingai, Iwata, Shizuoka), is part of the Yamaha Corporation. After expanding Yamaha Corporation into the world's biggest piano maker, then Yamaha CEO Genichi Kawakami took Yamaha into the field of motorized vehicles on July 1, 1955. The company's intensive research into metal alloys for use in acoustic pianos had given Yamaha wide knowledge of the making of lightweight, yet sturdy and reliable metal constructions. This knowledge was easily applied to the making of metal frames and motor parts for motorcycles. Yamaha Motor is the world's second largest producer of motorcycles (after Honda)[citation needed]. It also produces many other motorized vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, Yamaha outboard motors, and personal watercraft.

The Yamaha corporate logo is comprised of three tuning forks placed on top of each other in a triangular pattern.

In 2000, Toyota and Yamaha Corporation made a capital alliance where Toyota paid Yamaha Corporation 10.5 billion yen for a 5 per cent share in Yamaha Motor Company while Yamaha and Yamaha Motor each bought 500,000 shares of Toyota stock in return.

Contents

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[edit] Racing heritage

See also: Yamaha Motor Racing

Yamaha has a long racing heritage where it has had its machines and team win many different competitions in many different areas, particularly in motorcycle racing. Yamaha has had great success with riders such as Bob Hannah, Heikki Mikkola, Kenny Roberts, Chad Reed, Jeremy McGrath, Stefan Merriman, Wayne Rainey, and currently, Valentino Rossi. Yamaha has won a total of 35 World Championships, including 3 in MotoGP and 9 in the preceding 500cc 2-stroke class.

Yamaha created the innovations which lead to the modern motocross bike, as they were the first to build a production mono-shock motocross bike (1975 for 250 and 400, 1976 for 125) and one of the first to have a water-cooled motocross production bike (1977 in works bikes, 1981 in off-the-shelf bikes).

Since 1962 Yamaha produced production road racing grand prix motorcycles that any licensed road racer could purchase. In 1970, non-factory "privateer" teams dominated the 250cc World Championship with Great Britain’s Rodney Gould winning the title on a Yamaha TD2.

Yamaha also sponsors several professional ATV riders in several areas of racing, such as cross country racing and motocross. Yamaha has had good success in cross country with their YFZ450, being ridden by Bill Ballance, winning 9 straight titles since 2000. Yamaha's other major rider, Traci Cecco, has ridden the YFZ450 to 7 titles, with the first in 2000. In ATV motocross, Yamaha has had success with Dustin Nelson and Pat Brown, both who race the YFZ450. Pat Brown's best season was a 3rd place title in 2007, while Nelson has had two 1st place titles in the Yamaha/ITP Quadcross, one in 2006 and the other in 2008.

The company also produced Formula One engines from 1989 to 1997, initially for the Zakspeed team and later for Tyrrell. These never won a race, but drivers including Andrea de Cesaris and Mark Blundell scored some good results with them.

[edit] Motorcycle models

Main article: List of Yamaha motorcycles

Yamaha has made an extensive number of two- and four-stroke scooters, on-road and off-road motorcycles. The Yamaha XS 650, introduced in 1970, was an early success. The yamaha RX-S 100 introduced in the RX models but with an energy induction in 1980's.

[edit] Scooters

See also List of scooters

[edit] Golf carts

Yamaha G1
Yamaha Drive

[edit] Personal watercraft

[edit] Wheelchairs

  • JW Active
  • JW-IB
  • Nesquick sponsored Race chair

[edit] Wheelchair upgrade parts

  • JWX-1
  • JW-II
  • JW-I

[edit] All-terrain vehicles

[edit] Snowmobiles

Yamaha has recently claimed[citation needed] a 100% four-stroke snowmobile line-up, making them the only snowmobile manufacturer to do so. In Canada though, there are still three models that Yamaha manufactures that are still 2 stroke. They are the Bravo, VK 540 and the Venture XL. Yamaha had introduced four-strokes to their line-up in 2003 and the line-up became four-stroke based for model year 2005. Many say[who?] that Yamaha has proven snowmobiles can be clean, efficient, and reliable all while maintaining strong performance. The RX-1 released in 2003 was the first performance-oriented four-stroke snowmobile to ever hit the market. It was not, however, the first modern four-stroke snowmobile produced. That honor belongs to Arctic Cat for their Yellowstone Special, released in 2000, which was designed as a rental sled that could meet Yellowstone National Park's stringent emission requirement. However, the Yamaha received much criticism for its weight disadvantage when compared to similar two-strokes, despite its excellent fuel economy and low-range torque. Yamaha is now on the cutting edge of four-stroke technology with the introducing of their 80FI engine which is equipped on the Phazer and Venture Lite models. This engine has one of the highest specific output of any four-stroke in production, with 160 HP/L, Yamaha achieves this even without the use of a forced induction system. Yamaha is also a key player in the "four-stroke wars", which are a series of advertisements from opponent Ski-Doo who claim their 2-tec and power-tek equipped two-strokes are still cleaner and more efficient than four-strokes, while Yamaha still claims the four-strokes are cleaner. Yamaha also broke a multi-year absence from sno-cross in the winter of 2006-07 with their introduction of a factory race team headed by former Arctic Cat racer Robbie Malinoski.

[edit] Current line-up

WARRIOR XV 1700

  • Apex
  • Nytro
  • FX Nytro
  • Phazer (4th Generation)
  • RS Vector
  • RS Venture
  • VK Professional

[edit] Significant previously produced models

  • Bravo
  • V-Max
  • SRX

[edit] Snowblowers

  • YT-600E
  • YT-600ED
  • YT-660EDJ
  • YS-870
  • YS-870J
  • YS-1070
  • YT-1080ED
  • YT-1080EX
  • YT-1290EX
  • YT-1290EXR
  • YS-1390A
  • YS-1390AR
  • YAMAHA-R15

[edit] Remote-controlled helicopters

  • Yamaha R-50
  • Yamaha R-MAX

[edit] Outboard motors

  • 4 stroke series
  • 4 stroke jet drive series
  • 2 stroke V6
  • 2 stroke portable / mid range
  • Full list

[edit] Kart engines

[edit] KT series 2 stroke

  • KT100SD
  • KT100SC
  • KT100SEC
  • KT100SP
  • KT100J
  • KT100AX
  • KT100A2

[edit] Other vehicles

Yamaha has also built engines for other manufacturers' vehicles, most notably the V-6 and V-8 engine for the Ford Taurus SHO. The Volvo XC90 uses a larger version of the same Yamaha V-8 engine. They also built Formula One racing engines from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, with little on-track success. In 1991, Yamaha developed its F1 engined supercar called the OX99-11 where two drivers sit in tandem in front of the engine, but the project was cancelled due to the world recession and lack of interest.

Yamaha also tunes engines for other manufacturers, Toyota being one of them. Yamaha logos are, for instance, found on the Toyota S engines.[1] as well as the 2ZZ-GE utilized by Toyota, Pontiac, and Lotus.

Yamaha developed a prototype for a two-seater sports car with help of Albrecht Goertz. While the Yamaha/Nissan partnership never progressed beyond the prototype stage, Toyota took up the design and released the Toyota 2000GT. [2]

[edit] Water purifiers

[edit] Alkalion purifier

  • OH-A21N

[edit] Purifier

  • OH-U20-SA2
  • OH-U20-SB1
  • OH-U30-HS
  • OH-U30-KA4
  • OH-U30-SB3
  • OH-U40-KA2
  • OH-U40-SB1

[edit] Business machines

  • Robot
  • Surface mounter
  • Pool
  • CNC machine
  • Golf car
    • G31E
    • G31AL
  • Engine
    • MT series (2 stroke)
      • MT 110
      • MT 110 VLS
    • MZ series (4 stroke)
      • MZ 125
      • MZ 175
      • MZ 200 (New Model)
      • MZ 250
      • MZ 300
      • MZ 360
  • Gasoline Engine Water Pump
      • YP20G
      • YP30G
  • Underground oil tank
    • My Tank
  • Oil separator
    • Pattol series
  • Food additive
  • Gas heat pump
    • M series
    • SH series
    • 3HP multi
    • Living mate
    • YCJ series

[edit] External links

Companies portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Motor_Company"
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