Looks like German car maker BMW is not going to sit down and watch its competitors, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, register high sales figures. The Bavarian based auto maker is looking to take on its rivals by launching new models in India in coming years. Only recently, BMW launched the 1 Series, which has been competing with the Mercedes-Benz A-Class hatchback. Not only is the company going to introduce new models, it is aiming at improving the production capacity by inducing fresh investments. According to sources, the German auto giant is gearing up to launch 3 Series GT model in India by 2014. As per company officials, BMW is going to increase its annual production capacity to 14000 units. In order to facilitate this, the German firm, reportedly, has allocated an investment of around Rs. 210 crore.
Statistics suggest that the BMW 3 Series GT is going to be the seventh model, which will come out of the firm's production facility in Chennai. Industry experts have praised BMW's plans to manufacture the 3 Series GT locally and feel that it will help the firm to keep the vehicle pricing in check. Philipp Von Sahr, President of the BMW Group India, spoke about how the firm plans to launch sedans in order to gain a sizeable market share. "We are putting a new assembly line at our Chennai factory exclusively for our sedans that command a premium status in the Indian market. The all new 3 Series GT would roll out from this new line by next year for which additional capacity is being created by this year end," he was quoted as saying.
The road has been slightly tricky for the German car manufacturer in India in the past year. Notably, in 2012, BMW, which sells 14 models in India, was the market leader in the luxury vehicle segment. It performed significantly better than its rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi, outdoing them in terms of sales. There are a number of factors that contributed to the slowdown in the success of BMW. In the first place, the Indian economy was hit badly by a crisis, which lead to a lot of problems for all industries. The automobile industry, in particular, suffered gravely as the demand slowed down and sales started dropping significantly. Market adversity combined with the rise of Audi to the top led to a dip in BMW's performance. In the recent past, Mercedes-Benz has also registered tremendous growth figures, thereby furthering hampering BMW's market share.
With plans of expanding its portfolio, BMW is also thinking about launching electric cars in India, such as i3 and i8. According to figures, BMW i3, currently on sale in the international market, comes at a price of around Rs. 29.5 lakh. Due to uncertainty of a sufficient customer base, the company has refrained from launching the i3 electric car in India. Industry experts feel that although the scope for electric cars is rising in India, it would not be wise to launch a model in the current scenario. Operating on a lithium-ion battery, BMW i3 has a driving range of around 130-160 km and it can reach 100 kmph from scratch within a time period of around 7.2 seconds. On the other hand, BMW i8, a plug-in hybrid car with technologically advanced features, might make its way to India in 2014, according to sources. i8, when running on a combination of fuel tank and battery, can run for up to 500 km. Incredibly, when the car utilises both sources of power, it can clock 100 kmph from 0 kmph in just 4.5 seconds.
Sahr, speaking at a recent interaction, explained how the company wanted to market i3 and i8 for customers in top cities. "We have some exciting plans for the Indian market. Our electric cars are perfectly suitable for mega cities like Delhi and Mumbai that are grappling with problems of of pollution and congestion. We are closely scrutinizing the possibility of introducing these environment friendly i3 and i8 models to the Indian customers," he was quoted as saying.
