Design Cafe

"There are many scooters in this category already." says Product Planner Giovanna Camisa. "But we did not want to make just another one. We wanted to be sure we could develop clear advantages for the customer, and spent a lot of time to research the actual usage in their daily life."

14 years of Aerox History: an overview of all models, all colours

When X-Max 250 came to the market by mid 2005, it was an instant success. Yamaha's concept was very clear: to develop a compact and functional maxiscooter with a sporty riding character, that excels both in city commuting as well as in leisure riding and weekend getaways.

When X-Max 125 was launched in 2006, it was an instant success. Yamaha's concept was very clear: to develop a compact and functional maxiscooter with a sporty riding character, that excels both in city commuting as well as in leisure riding and weekend getaways.

“The new TMAX is closer to a motorcycle than ever,” says Naoki Segawa, today in charge of Product Planning for Yamaha's scooter line up in Europe. The ingredients of this model’s improvements are a completely new chassis including an Aluminium frame and new suspension components as well as totally new bodywork.

The X-City is designed for inner city commuting, unlike its brother model X-Max, which is set up more for higher speed on highways and city ring roads.

“This little thing handles like a bike”, the Yamaha test rider smiles, when stepping of X-MAX after first prototype testing.

The BW's scooter was first shown to the public in Tokyo, in the autumn of 1988. The very original design of this model has made it a longtime bestseller in Europe, especially in latin countries. For the first time in its long history, there is a big model change coming, for the year 2004.

Our scooter product line manager for Yamaha Motor Europe, explains the background of the development of this exciting new concept.

François-Marie Dumas, scooter enthusiast, author of publications on scooters and motorcycles and consultant to Yamaha Product Planning, was involved in T-Max's early stage of concept development. He looks at history of big scooters and draws his conclusions: T-Max, the first horizontal parallel twin 4-stroke ever built is the synthesis of scooter and motorcycle. He recalls engineers dreams to combine this two categories in the last century.

Scooters were just a mean of transport in the Fifties, almost disappeared in the seventies and eighties and had a revival in the nineties. Why did scooters become popular and what were the key developments in the last decade? The Scooter Product Planner at Yamaha Motor Europe explains his views. Being Italian, he understands the social and cultural background of the scooter success in Europe, which is boosted and inspired by the Italian market.

YAMAHA have just launched their new 500 cc high performance scooter. The Tmax sets a new standard in the maxi scooter world. Its performance and comfort is breaking new ground in the scooter category. The development project started when the New Product Planning Team at YAMAHA MOTOR EUROPE realized the potential of maxi scooter.