1st Yamaha technical center in Europe
Marine engine specialist Yamaha has announced the opening of a new facility in Europe. The Yamaha Marine European Engineering Center is the first of its kind for the brand on the continent, while the Japanese firm has several technical centers in its home country, as well as in the USA. Located in Rotterdam, on the waterfront, this new facility has been operational since early 2024, and will be officially inaugurated in June 2024, with dedicated staff currently being recruited for the site.
Facilitating work with construction sites and dealers
This new tool, designed for the European market, has multiple functions. First and foremost, it will support Yamaha Europe in its collaboration with the brand's original equipment partners, as explained by Cédric Merlet, head of marine business development and OEMs for Europe: "Among the various tasks in the specification, the first is to support OEM collaboration, through boat testing and homologation. Once the boats are on site, it's easier to test the different mounting or propeller configurations, the different engines. We can draw up performance reports, make a precise parts list for each configuration, and facilitate sales afterwards. With 14 original equipment customers managed directly by Europe and local agreements, this gives us a training tool, bearing in mind that we visit the factories every month to check that the assemblies are optimal and to retrain teams who may change."
Thanks to the technical center, Yamaha Motor Europe will be able to expand its test database under optimal and repeatable conditions," says the manager: "We'll be able to make good comparisons with the competition, with a real protocol, on the same boats. This makes for better data to give arguments to our salespeople and propose improvements adapted to European boats to the engineers in Japan."
A reference center for electric boats
Yamaha Europe's technical center will also take the lead in electric motor development within the Japanese group, which has just stepped up a gear with the acquisition of Torqeedo. While details remain confidential, Cédric Merlet concludes by emphasizing the center's interest in : "The Group believes that Europe is the most promising market for electric boats. An area of shallow water will be particularly suitable for testing small motors. While the existing Harmo is suitable for speeds under 10 km/h for slow, heavy boats like Amsterdam sloops or boat-houses, a Harmo 2.0 should see the light of day at METS for other markets."
