BMW bets big on luxury car market, to ramp-up dealer network

MUMBAI: With India emerging as a hot-spot for luxury cars, German luxury car-maker BMW, plans to ramp-up its network pan-India and penetrate Tier II BMW Z4 Sportscar Porsche Panamera Mercedes E-Class

cities like Coimbatore, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Bhubhaneshwar and Lucknow, among others, a top company official said here.

The year 2009 has been good for the company when it sold 992 cars in the first quarter itself.

"We hope to end the year (2009) as the number one seller of luxury cars (in India)," BMW India's President, Peter Kronschnabl, told PTI here.

The company presently 12 dealers in 10 cities and plans to add 10 more in Tier II cities by the end of 2010. It expects each dealer from Tier II locations to contribute about 30-40 cars per year, he said.

BMW's global component sourcing from India is progressing as per plan, Kronschnabl said.

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"We have identified a couple of partners. In the next stage we will be going for sampling and over the next two years we expect our volumes to pick up," he said.

BMW has already launched four new models this year with three more slated for launch. These include the petrol and diesel variants of its top-end sedan 7 series.

Source India car.com: Source : Economic Times (1/17/2010)