BMW Group steps up its activities in India.

Munich / Delhi. The BMW Group is strengthening its commitment in the growth market of India. As a first step, local production capacity at the BMW plant in Chennai has been increased from 3,000 to 5,400 units and the dealer network further expanded.

“India is a market that holds great potential for the future for us and is a building block in our global market offensive. Our success so far has proved that our ‘production-follows-the-market’ strategy, which has already been successful in markets such as the US and China, is the right approach,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Production. “At the same time as we are expanding capacity, we will also be gearing the plant to produce a further model for the Indian market, the X1, starting in November 2010 and thereby opening up new customer segments.”

In addition to strengthening capacity, a new vehicle logistics centre will also be set up on the grounds of the Chennai plant, for which land has already been acquired. By mid-2012, the BMW Group will have invested a total of EUR 30 million in India since launching production there in 2007.

At the same time, BMW is also stepping up its local sales and marketing activities. To meet rising customer demand for BMW vehicles and services, its sales network will be systematically expanded to 22 dealerships by 2011 – almost doubling its size since early 2009. Towards the end of this year, BMW Financial Services will also begin offering its financial services in the Indian market for the first time.

In the first eight months of this year alone, BMW sales in India climbed 43% to reach a total of 3,301 units. This means that the BMW Group has already sold almost as many vehicles in India this year as in the whole of 2009.

“The ongoing expansion of our dealer network means that we will be present in all major regions of India and able to reach more than 95 percent of our potential buyers,” according to Andreas Schaaf, president of BMW Group’s Indian subsidiary. “Having taken the lead in the premium segment for the first time last year, we aim to maintain our leading position this year with the market launch of the new 5 Series. We are also confident that we will be able to increase sales substantially over the coming years.”

The BMW Group has been actively involved in India through its own sales company since 2006 and has been able to increase annual sales more than tenfold, to 3,619 units between 2006 and 2009. Since March 2007, BMW has also had its own production in India, at its Chennai plant in the state of Tamil Nadu, which builds the BMW 3 Series and 5 Series for the Indian market.