Last month Rajiv Bajaj announced that the scooter segment in India is on the verge of its extinction and Bajaj Auto bowed out of the scooter segment which was once dominated by the firm. Now Hero Honda is set to defy the perception. It is reported that the company is planning to roll out a new range of gearless scooters most probably from their Manesar plant. Pleasure, the only model from the company, has witnessed good response and reportedly, its sales has zoomed up by 39% to 1.27 lakh units in the first eight months of the financial year. On the contrary, Bajaj Auto's scooter 'Kristal' sold only 154 units in the same period.

Hero Honda's sister concern Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is the market leader in the scooter segment with it's gearless offering Acitva soaring the sales charts. Now Hero Honda will have to battle it out with HMSI with Honda's core technology being the same. According to HMSI's sales figures, they sold 4.5 lakh units in the April – November 09 period. This sales figure is believed to include a backlog of almost 1 lakh units owing to some production difficulties due to labour unrest. Covering up the same, HMSI officials claim that they would be able to speed up their production and therefore will supply extra units for fulfilling the demand.

The Indian scooter segment is also attracting players like Mahindra, TVS Motors and Suzuki.