BMW India, which unveiled its 6 Generation 5 series model on Friday, plans to sell over 4,000 units across all its series this calendar year, a top company official said.
"The luxury car market is poised to cross over 11,000 units in 2010. BMW targets 4,000 units sales this year. With this, we expect a strong double-digit growth this year," BMW India President Peter Kronschnabl said at the launch.
In 2009, about 9,000 units of cars were sold in the luxury segment in India.
Kronschnabl said BMW will increase the production capacity in India at its Chennai plant. The current capacity is 3,000 units in single-shift operations per year. He, however, refused to divulge details of investment and scaling-up of production capacity.
"I am very confident that the Indian market has a very good long-term growth and hence, we feel that there is every need to focus in this market. Hence, we plan to scale-up our production capacity at our Chennai plant," Kronschnabl said.
BMW's 5 series launch in India was a part of global launch. The new series will be available in petrol variants--535i and 523i, and diesel variants 530 d and 525d.
The price range is Rs 38 lakh (Rs 38,90,000) to Rs 58 lakh (Rs 58,00,000). While the 523i, 525d and 530d will be manufactured at the Chennai unit, the 535i, which is the high-end model will be imported as a CBU (completely built-up unit).
"BMW 5 series accounts for 50 per cent of our total sales globally and we hope that this series will be a market leader in the luxurious sedan segment," he said.
Kronschnabl, who is now going to head BMW Russia, added that the company is planning to invest $50 million over the next two-years to start its financial service arm BMW- NBFC in India.
