Yamaha Motor USA to Swallow Up Yamaha Canada

Yamaha’s board of directors has voted in transfer all shares of its Canadian subsidiary to its American subsidiary, a move which would give Yamaha Motor U.S.A. responsibility over the entire North American market.

The proposed transfer, set to begin in December,  will make Yamaha Motor Canada a subsidiary of its American counterpart. According to Yamaha, the transfer will create a more streamlined management structure for its North American operations.

What this means for the consumer is not yet clear. Yamaha Motor Canada will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary, whereas manufacturers such as Ducati, Triumph and Piaggio have each consolidated operations for both Canada and the U.S. into a single North American entity.

Yamaha’s U.S. and Canadian arms offer many of the same models across its motorcycle, ATV, side-by-side, snowmobile, watercraft and marine offerings, but there are some differences. Among motorcycles, Yamaha Motor Canada is not offering the Star Raider SCL, the first Star Custom Line special edition Raider. On the other hand, Canadians are offered the Yamaha Fazer8 (pictured above) which isn’t available in the U.S. A couple of scooter models also go under different names in Canada, such as the 50cc and 125cc Zuma (BWs or “Bee Wees”)  and the C3 (C Cubed).

[Source: Yamaha]

By Dennis Chung