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"Hero Honda will have to offer something extra to make a mark in this segment,"

New Delhi , Oct. 5

THE fast growing gearless scooter market is set to face cutthroat competition with a flurry of new entrants and launches from existing players.

The latest player to hop onto the gearless scooter bandwagon, considered to be the second largest segment in the two-wheeler market after motorcycles, is Hero Honda with its 102 cc `Pleasure'.

HMSI well entrenched: Market analysts, however, point out that the launch is unlikely to cause much panic in the market, as Honda Motorcycles and Scooter India (HMSI) is comfortably placed with a market share of around 50 per cent.

"The entry will not cause any panic in the market, as HMSI is a very well entrenched player and the gearless scooter market is growing phenomenally. Hero Honda will have to offer something extra to make a mark in this segment," Mr Amit Adarkar, Director, Synovate India said.

Hero Honda will announce the pricing for its new scooter in November.

Activa leads: HMSI, with it flagship scooter Activa, accounted for half of the domestic scooter market in the last fiscal, with sales of 4,50,967 units.

While there is no official data on the sales of gearless scooters, industry experts estimate the growth to be around 20 per cent in the last year. According to estimates, the category could account for 25-30 per cent of the overall two-wheeler industry over the next three to five years.

In fact, players including TVS and Bajaj, have rolled out products in this category to increase their market share.

Kinetic, too, has an aggressive rollout plan with its Italjet range of scooters. Yamaha is in the process of finalising a plan to roll out its scooter range in the domestic market.

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