First Yamaha Outboard Turns 50

This year, the very first Yamaha outboard celebrates its 50th anniversary. In March 2010, the company produced its nine millionth outboard. Now, 50 years on from that very first outboard, Yamaha offers over a thousand different model variants. The story began in 1960 with the introduction of that first outboard model, the revolutionary 7 hp Yamaha P-7.

It took 36 years before total production reached the 5 millionth unit milestone, which was achieved in March of 1996 and 10 years later in October 2006, the total reached 8 million units. However, production of the next million Yamaha outboards, to the figure of 9 million, has been achieved in just over 3 years.

Currently, Yamaha outboards are produced at five factories in Japan, France and Brazil.

“Every aspect of manufacture is painstakingly controlled - from materials and machining, heat treatment, painting and assembly, all the way through to quality assessment and testing. It’s how we build the Yamaha reputation for matchless performance and absolute reliability into each and every product,” a company statement reads.

The Japanese company recently introduced new production technologies at the Fukuroi South factory, the increased use of super-accurate robotic machines on the paint line and a more efficient ‘modular’ production system. Other innovations include the increased use of natural light for working as well as the installation of a water recycling system.

“Moving forward, Yamaha Motor continues to develop and exploit new technologies that not only improve product performance but which satisfy the increasingly important environmental manufacturing standards demanded of manufacturers in every sphere of industry today,” the statement further adds.