BMW has been riding high on its success in
India since its entry about a year ago. After reaching a sales figure of nearly a thousand cars last year, it’s now aiming at twice the figure for 2008. They have already taken steps in this direction by increasing production capacity at their Chennai plant and are currently looking to source components locally. The
BMW 3 Series and 5 Series models produced at the Chennai plant have been immensely popular with the Indian public.
BMW’s strong sales encouraged it to introduce more of its car models to the Indian market such as the popular M Series and the customizable and completely imported 7 Series. BMW has also been tempted into considering the launch of the famous premium hatchback MINI Cooper. The MINI Cooper, however, is not on the list of BMW’s priorities at the moment.
Before BMW’s arrival, German rival Mercedes-Benz took up nearly 50% of India’s fast growing luxury car market. Over the past 14 months, BMW has successfully stolen some of that market away. The top selling model for BMW in India has been the 3 Series which competes with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The popular Mercedes-Benz E-Class sees competition from BMW in the form of the 5 Series model.
Excellent aftersales service and great customer relationship have been selling points for BMW. The successful setup and operation of the Chennai plant for local production of the 3 Series and 5 Series cars has been critical to BMW’s success.