The World's largest two-wheeler maker by volume is now aiming for a 4.5 million unit sales tag by the end of the current fiscal in March 2010. Hero Honda has sold a total of 41,85,492 units when we talk about the cumulative sales till February 2010 in the current fiscal. Out of the total cumulative sales, a whopping 3,82,096 units were sold in the month of February alone.

Hero-Honda bread-and-butter has been its high volumes in the entry level segment. "Competing with Hero Honda in the entry-level segment is a very tough task as the company has a very deep rural penetration," explained Pankaj Dubey, National Business Head, Yamaha India.

In fact, it is surprising to see that Hero Honda which gave Bajaj Auto many sleepless nights in the mid-80s when it launched its products in the market when it was mainly dominated by scooters and that too of Bajaj Auto.

Ironically, Hero Honda today sells 20,000 units of its Pleasure model while Bajaj has opted to move out of the segment altogether to focus on motorcycles. It was in 2006 that Bajaj was once very close to overtaking Hero Honda as the market leader but the fact is Hero Honda's consistent performance coupled with Bajaj misreading the Indian market has kept the Hero Honda flag flying high. Bajaj Auto stands a distant second in terms of volume.