The New Yamaha Drive:
Company hopes to make a strong move in the electric golf car market November 2006; By Don Jozwiak

Few companies can match Yamaha’s wide range of design and manufacturing expertise. The global giant is a leader in a variety of product categories, including musical instruments, audio and video equipment, computer electronics and software. Of course, the Yamaha name is perhaps most associated with motor vehicles – from Star motorcycles to sport ATVs and WaveRunners.

As a subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Corporation, the Yamaha Golf Car Company has full access to the parent company’s engineering expertise that powers a multitude of other motorized vehicles. And Yamaha is revving up to make a big move in the golf car business with an all-new model called the Yamaha Drive.

The Drive is Yamaha’s first all-new golf car since 1995, and the company started the design process with extensive feedback from PGA Professionals about what they and their customers want from a golf car. Tops on the wish list: Comfort, versatility, style and performance. Yamaha Golf Car’s engineers approached each item with innovative thinking and an eye on the bottom line – knowing that golf cars are both a big expense and revenue producer.

“This new Yamaha Drive is not only a superior fleet golf car, it is also fun to drive,” says Stan Miser, division manager for Yamaha Golf Car. “Our new golf car, like our watercraft and our ATVs, will put a smile on the driver’s face. It’s smart for the owner, but it’s also fun for the golfer to drive.”

Yamaha Golf Car gave PGA Magazine an exclusive first look at the Yamaha Drive prior to introducing the car to its sales force in mid-October. What we saw at the company’s Newnan, Ga., plant was a thoroughly modern golf car with a sporty design, extra-wide seats built for ergonomic comfort and an easy-to-reach, automotive-style dash area with compartments for cell phones and sunglasses – and removable, easy-to-clean cupholders.

In addition to its eye-catching looks, the new golf car also packs plenty of technology. The Yamaha Drive is built at the same facility as popular ATVs such as the Rhino and the Grizzly, and the WaveRunner watercraft. The new golf car shares some technology with other Yahama vehicles, including a regenerative braking system first used in motorcycles that uses no brake shoes or pads.

Yamaha is also looking to the Drive to change the perception that it is not competitive in the electric golf car business. With golf car rentals and sales trending solidly toward electric models, Yamaha is betting that the Drive will make significant inroads into that market segment.

“We always hear that Yamaha is known as a leader in gas golf cars,” says Joel Cheek, Yamaha Golf Car’s service and specialty vehicles manager. “But we haven’t done a good enough job of marketing our excellent electric golf cars. That’s going to change with the Yamaha Drive.”

The company is promoting the Drive by highlighting the low cost of ownership for both the gas and electric models. Yamaha says it has improved fuel economy on the gas version, and electric models have a proprietary battery charging system that it claims costs less to recharge than other golf cars on the market – as much as 10 percent less.

“We’re the only golf car company that builds its own electrical components,” says PGA Professional Kevin Norcross, manager of new business development for Yamaha Golf Car. “We’re really experts in that area, which creates an opportunity for us to make a very efficient electric golf car. The industry is really going electric, and the Drive is going to be a Yamaha’s real introduction to a lot of clubs with electric fleets that might not have even considered Yamaha in the past.”

To get the word out, Yamaha Golf Car has crafted an aggressive marketing and advertising campaign built around a list of 57 reasons the company thinks the Drive is the best golf car ever built. The list is the focus of a Web site devoted solely to the Drive (www.discoverthedrive.com), and Yamaha is producing brochures that emulate automobile catalogs.

“We want to change our market image,” says Will Scoggins, marketing and product planning manager for Yamaha Golf Car. “From the visual appeal of the car to the features and ergonomics, and the many technological benefits, we really feel like the Drive is what Yamaha Golf Car is all about. We’re an engineering company that specializes in recreational vehicles, and we know how to build a better vehicle.”