German luxury car manufacturer BMW is speculating 50 per cent of overall sales to come from its X Series product lineup in India. In last three the X lineup has contributed to about 30 per cent of overall sales. This has further increased to 42 per cent with the addition of the new X1. The growing demand for SUVs in the country is expected to aid with its overall sales numbers.
Going forward, the company speculates that the recently launched new X3 and the 2019 X4 will help the company in contributing to 50 per cent of sales from the X Series. Currently, the company sells the X1, X3, X5 and X6. All the SUVs are offered at a price range of Rs 34.5 lakh to Rs 1.3 crore. The price hike from April 2018 onwards is not expected to have considerable effect in terms of sales of the company’s product lineup in India. In the first quarter of 2018, the company had reported sold 2,377 units thereby witnessing a growth of 11 per cent. Due to a positive start this year, the company is reportedly looking at double-digit growth for the full year.
In the Budget for 2018-19, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister had increased customs duty on CKD (completely knocked down) imports of motor vehicles, motor cars, motor cycles from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. As for BMW cars in India, their prices have been increased in the range of 3.5-5 per cent from April. Speaking on the revision in taxation, Vikram Pawah, BMW Group India President said, “When such change happens, it impacts customer confidence to some degree. Having said that the market is still very small and the growth opportunities are still there, especially with us because of the new models that we are launching.”
