The New BMW

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 Luxury car-maker BMW aims to become the leader in its segment in India by 2010, when the luxury car market is expected to double to 10,000 units.

BMW (India), which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the BMW group, sold 1,387 cars in India in 2007 against its original estimate of 1,000. "An aggressive plan is being implemented for development of a dealer organisation across all metropolitan centres and we aim to sell 2,000 vehicles to our customers in India in 2008, of which 862 have already been delivered till March 2008," BMW (India) President, Peter Kronschnabl, said after launching a dealership here.

He said BMW were the segment leaders worldwide with BMW 3, 5 and 7 series, which were the core model series of the BMW brand and "We want to be number one in India too."

In tune with market response, BMW has now revved up its dealership expansion plans, advancing its 2009 plans to the current year. Mr. Kronschnabl said while the initial plan was to have 12 dealers by 2009, this had now been advanced to 2008 when all the metropolitan centres would be covered.
Capacity increase

The company has so far invested Rs. 110 crore in India. With head-office in Gurgaon and production facility in Chennai, the company employs 200 people directly and 600 indirectly.

Referring to the Chennai plant, which was inaugurated in 2007, he said the capacity had recently been increased to 3,000 units from 1,700 units annually on a single-shift basis. Final inspections and operational tests ensure that the quality of each vehicle produced at the plant was manufactured to the specified BMW quality.

He also said that the establishment of an international purchasing office at Gurgaon which would focus on the development of exports from India to the BMW Group International Production Network.