JIJI – Yamaha Motor Co. has unveiled a prototype of its Motiv small vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show that it plans to commercialize by 2020.
It will be Yamaha Motor’s first four-wheel vehicle since the 2000GT sports car it developed jointly with Toyota Motor Corp. in the 1960s.
Yamaha Motor, which primarily manufacturers motorcycles, has been developing both a gasoline version of the two-seat vehicle with an engine displacement of 1,000cc, and an electric version.
The Motiv is “a research model to pursue Yamaha’s vehicle development,” President Hiroyuki Yanagi told reporters Wednesday.
The company will team up with a firm run by Gordon Murray, the South African designer of the McLaren-Honda Formula One racing car that won 15 of 16 races in 1988.
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