BMW inaugurates Chennai dealership

BMW has opened its newest dealership called Kun Exclusive in Chennai on March 11.

Located near the airport, Kun Exclusive is an ultra-modern showroom integrated with an aftersales service facility that is capable of servicing 20 cars per day and has been set up at a cost of Rs 6 crore. The outlet will display the BMW 3 and 5 Series saloon cars that are produced at the Chennai plant, as well as CBU models like the 6, 7 and X3 Series.

The southern city is also the location for the German carmaker’s manufacturing plant whose capacity has been increased from 1,700 to 3,000 cars per annum recently with an investment of Rs 3 crore.

Peter Kronschnabl, president, BMW India, who was present at the opening also announced the debut of the company’s high-performance M Series cars in Chennai with the launch of the M3 coupe.

“This facility will bring to the southern metropolis BMW’s standard of sales and service as is available in any BMW dealership worldwide. We are on the right track, selling 1,387 cars in India during calendar year 2007 compared to our target of 1,000 cars’ he said.

The German carmaker has set a sales target of 2,000 cars for 2008 of which 80 percent would be locally-assembled 3 and 5 Series models, the rest being CBU imports. Currently, the company has a 10 percent localisation, which it plans to increase gradually.

Record sales

BMW India has sold 229 cars in January 2008 and 241 in February this year, which have been record sales for the company, according to Kronschnabl. At present, the company has nine dealerships in India and under Phase One of its expansion plan three more dealers covering other major metros will be opened by end-2008. BMW is also looking at opening in smaller cities in the future, with Coimbatore being a possibility in the future.

BMW is also working to launch its newest model, the X6 in India. However, the launch of this crossover SUV is likely to happen only in 2009, as the homologation process would take a few months.

While the company has also concluded its market research on the Mini, Kronschnabl declined to confirm if and when this iconic car might be launched, but he did indicate that if launched the car's pricing would be in the region of Rs 20 lakh in India.