| Yamaha Motor Company Limited | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Background | ||
| Based |  Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan
| |
| Founded | 1955 | |
| Key People | Hiroyuki Yanagi
| |
| Industry | Automobiles | |
| Formula E Record | ||
| Début |  2024/25 São Paulo E-Prix
| |
| Total Entries | 0 (0 Starts) | |
| Wins | Poles | FLs |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Points | 0 | |
| Current Season | ||
| Team(s) | Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team | |
| Car | Lola T001 | |
Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. (ヤマハ発動機株式会社 Yamaha Hatsudōki Kabushiki gaisha in Japanese) is a Japanese automobile manufacturer that specialises in motorcycles, motorboats and a variety of other motobility solutions.[1] An off-shoot of the global Yamaha Group, the Japanese firm would be a co-manufacturer in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship ahead of the 2024/25 season, after forming a partnership with Lola Cars to enter the series.[2]
Yamaha later confirmed that they would partner with Lola for the entire Generation 4 era of the FE Series, after Lola had originally announced their intention to continue in the series without naming Yamaha as a partner.[3]
Background[]
The Yamaha Motor Co. was formed in July 1955, when Genichi Kawakami broke the sector away from the wider Yamaha Corporation to focus on building on motorcycles, producting its first design, the YA-1, before the end of the year, albeit based off of a German design.[1] Instant success was found as the bike proved to be very competitive in competition, with the Japanese firm continuing to develop the design through the end of the decade, as well as create a larger 250cc engined bike and build its first outboard marine engines.[1] The 1960s would see growth funded by success on the track, Yamaha opening its first subsidiaries in Thailand and then the Netherlands, and would even manage to challenge established brands such as Honda and Triumph with bikes of equal quality and performance.[1]
Bikes and Bounty: 1970s - Present[]
Yamaha's success on the circuit would continue to fuel its sales off track, with Yamaha continuing in the 1970s to explore various racing series and developing successful bikes to compete in them, winning the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1979 as its biggest success.[1] The 1980s saw Yamaha continue to favour two-stroke engines instead of four-strokes, despite the latter being the trend, with the RX-Z design going on to be sold through from 1985 until 2011 as one of the most successful bikes the company produced.[1] The 1990s saw more performance focused bikes and a sub-brand for Yamaha to try and break into the American market, the Star Motorcycles series, while the early 2000s saw more investment overseas in new subsidiaries to increase Yamaha's market share.[1]
On the track, Yamaha would enter the World Superbike Series, claiming its first win in 2009, although it woudl have to wait until 2021 to see its first World Champion crowned, although Yamaha bikes would still claim victories in numerous seasons.[1]
Four-Wheel dabbles: 1989 - 1997[]
Elsewhere, Yamaha was tempted into the world of Formula One as a result of its motorcycle successes, partnering with Zakspeed in 1989 to produce an engine, although it would have to wait until 1994 to get its first major result with third at the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix.[1] The group would also partner with Judd to develop their Grand Prix engines, although after narrowly missing out on its first Grand Prix victory at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, Yamaha would quit F1 at the end of 1997 after falling out with Arrows, the team they supplied.[1]
Formula E History[]
Yamaha were a surprise announcement as an addition the manufacturer pool for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, having been revealed as a technical partner of Lola Cars as they plotted a return to World Championship level motorsport in 2024.[2] Announced on the eve of the 2024 Tokyo E-Prix, Yamaha's first powertrain with Lola, the Lola T001 would run a couple of months later for the first time, with the duo aligning with ABT Sportsline to run their cars in Season 11 and hence secure the talents of Lucas di Grassi to help develop the car.[4]
Products[]
The Lola T001 was the first Yamaha product for the Formula E Championship.
Yamaha were commissioned by Lola Cars to co-develop a powertrain for their first attempt at entering the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship ahead of the 2024/25 season.[2]
Lola T001: 2024/25 - 2025/26[]
The Lola T001 was the first car produced by the Yamaha-Lola alliance and would be based on the Spark Racing Technologies Gen 3 Evo ruleset which was introduced ahead of the 2024/25 season.[5] Featuring a dual motor design, as was the case for all of the FE field in 2024/25, the Yamaha powertrain was rated at an efficiency of 95% and would be the only brand-new car for the 2024/25 season, as all other manufacturers were able to base their designs on previous cars for the start of the Generation 3 era.[5]
References[]
Videos and Images:
References:
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedYam - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 'Lola Cars returns to top tier motorsport with Yamaha as technical partner', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 28/03/2024), https://fiaformulae.com/de/news/493456, (Accessed 21/03/2025)
- ↑ 'Lola Cars extends technical partnership with Yamaha Motor through GEN4', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 09/04/2025), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/523403, (Accessed 10/04/2025)
- ↑ Dominik Wilde, 'Lola Yamaha Formula E car gets first shakedown test', racer.com, (Racer Media & Marketing Inc., 21/06/2024), https://racer.com/2024/06/21/lola-yamaha-formula-e-car-gets-first-shakedown-test/, (Accessed 21/03/2025)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 'The Lola T001', lola-fe.com, (Lola Cars, 2025), https://www.lola-fe.com/car, (Accessed 21/03/2025)