BMW India on Thursday said it will launch entry level luxury car 1 Series in India next year-end as part of strategy to enhance its position in the country and at the same time it is preparing to hike product prices by up to 10 per cent across all models.
The company, which on Thursday launched the all-new BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe priced at Rs 86.40 lakh (Rs 8.64 million), also said it will bring three more new products by March 2013.
"By the end of 2013, we will start assembly of completely knocked down (CKD) units of the 1 series at our Chennai plant for the Indian market," president of BMW Group India Philipp von Sahr told PTI.
He said while a product like the BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe is mainly aimed at enhancing the brand equity of the company, the company has also plans to bring other products to drive volumes.
"In the next few days the new X6 will be launched. In January we will have the new X1 and in March the new 7 Series will be launched," Sahr said.
Although the current
"It is a tough economical situation...we will increase the prices of our products by up to 10 per cent depending on models by 2013," he said without elaborating.
At present, BMW sells its sedans 3 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series and 7 Series along with sports utility vehicles X1, X3, X5, crossover X6 along with M Series, Z4 Roadster and Gran Tourismo in India. These are priced between Rs 24.5 lakh (Rs 2.45 million) and Rs 1.40 crore (Rs 14 million).
When asked about the sales target for 2012, he declined to share numbers but said the company is growing at a good rate. "We want to see volumes increase but we will not give discounts like some of our competitors are doing just to push volumes," he said.
On whether the company is planning fresh investments for the Chennai plant, he said it has not been decided yet.
"We have increased the capacity at the plant to 11,000 units a year now from 1,500 in 2007. We have the flexibility and we can react on future capacity needs," Sahr said.
