Chennai: BMW is focused on south Indian market and 50 more tier-2 cities will be targeted to improve sales. The Chennai plant, which has the capacity to meet the growing demand, will now focus on manufacturing the all new Mini Countryman, said Vikram Pawah, president, BMW Group India.
In an interview to DC on the sidelines of the launch of new Mini Countryman in Delhi, the top corporate administrator admitted that the growth of the automobile industry in India will be even better, if the policy makers offered stability in terms of GST and fuel prices.
The Chennai manufacturing plant will be centre of action for next few years and we have installed the capacity to manufacture more cars. To a query on whether the Chennai plant is looking at the manufacturing of battery operated cars and more fuel efficient vehicles, Mr Pawah said that the group is working on electric space, where plug-in hybrid vehicles and battery operated vehicles are ready for other countries.
“The BMW plant in Chennai locally produces the BMW 3 Series, the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo, the BMW 5 Series, the BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo, the BMW 7 Series, the BMW X1, the BMW X3, the BMW X5 and now the MINI Countryman.
For India we are working on the technology and the market has to improve for such cars. Once when this is done, BMW will roll out the battery operated and plug-in hybrid vehicles for India. With the economic development opening up, BMW has plans to increase the production of all hatchbacks and sports activity vehicles”, he said.
Till date, BMW Group has invested '12.5 billion in its subsidiaries in India and we are on an expansion program. In fact, the new recent outlet in Madurai and the one at Coimbatore are doing well and there are plans to focus on other south Indian cities. The total number of employees at BMW Group India is over 650.
More than 3,000 additional jobs have been created in the dealer and service network. To increase our sales and identity the market areas mobile studios will be arranged to help the potential buyers know about the driving adventures built in a BMW car”, Mr Pawah added.
