BMW to introduce new 3-series in the second half of 2012

April 30: Luxury carmaker BMW is all set to roll out its new 3-series saloon, both in petrol and diesel versions, along with a couple of refreshed models in the second half of this year. These will be complemented with the opening of eight new showrooms of which the majority will be in non-metro towns from where BMW is targeting the majority of future sales.

“The new 3-series saloon will be a game-changer and the biggest highlight of 2012 for BMW,” said Dr Andreas Schaaf, president of BMW India. While the 5-series saloons are the big sellers for the carmaker in India, SUVs like the X1 and X3 are also popular in non-metro towns. Demand for BMW cars from the non-metro cities has risen from 30 to 50 percent and the company expects it to inch closer to 60 to 65 percent, going forward.

2011-12 saw BMW emerge as the new leader with sales of 9,593 units, toppling Mercedes-Benz from the top spot. Dr Schaaf is optimistic that the carmaker will record a growth of 10 to 20 percent in 2012-13, thanks to its focus on volume growth through popular model launches. The BMW Group is set to complete a century in 2016 globally.

Meanwhile, the premium small car Mini launched recently in CBU form has received over 100 bookings with deliveries to commence from the first week of May.

The German carmaker has a production capacity of 11,000 CKD units in its Chennai plant apart from the CBU units and Dr Schaaf says that the capacity can be stepped up further “as much as we want”. This will most likely be done with immediate effect.

“The long-term concept for the Chennai plant is to invest more whenever it is needed; we have purchased land, so we can enlarge it as it is based on a modular production concept that enables us to expand it step by step.”

SHOBHA MATHUR