BMW 1 Series Launch Later this year, Says Official

German luxury carmaker, BMW has recently launched the facelifted 7-Series luxury saloon in India, and started the local assembly of 'MINI' cars. Now, the company aims to further localization to competitively price its cars in India. The company has recorded the highest sales of 9,375 units in the premium segment in 2012, but the growth was just a single-digit. While, its competitors are offering their premium cars at competitive prices.

At the launch of upgraded 7 Series, BMW India president Philpp von Sahr said that "We are in the business of profitable growth and are not going to sell discounted cars just to attain volumes”. Stressing more on the need for "profitable growth", he said that,"We are now focussing on the local manufacture of our cars and extending the CKD (completely knocked down) production to more models that are sold in India. The BMW plant in Chennai will now locally produce the diesel variant of the 7 series, while the petrol versions will be imported”.

The Chennai based production unit rolls out the 3 series, 5 series, X1 and X3 crossover, and MINI Countryman. Presently, the total production capacity of the facility stands at 11,000 units per annum. The company is also planning to expand its line-up, and aims to launch the 1 series compact car in India, which will also be developed in Chennai. On 1-Series compact luxury, Sahr said that, "The 1 series is due for launch later this year and to price it competitively, we are going in for CKD production of all its versions,”.

The 1-Series is expected to be positioned along with MINI Countryman in premium hatch segment. When asked whether the Countryman would eat into the market of the 1 series, the president responds: "Though they are of the same size, they are two completely different brands with two different kinds of customer profiles.”

Few days back, BMW announced the local production of MINI in the country, and the locally produced car will be sold in India and also exported to select nations, however the company didn't speak about the name of the export markets. The other two MINI models, the MINI hatch and the MINI Convertible will continue to be imported as of now.

Source: Telegraph India

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