While the country is eagerly awaiting the launch of BMW 1-Series, which is likely to make its debut in India by mid of 2013, the company prior to that has decided to launch the new version of the 7-Series that would be sold from the end of this year. This was confirmed by Philipp von Sahr, president of BMW India.
Sahr, addressing a news conference on the launch of the facelifted X6 model said, "We want to achieve further growth (in India) with our brands and want to achieve different needs of our customers."
BMW at present assembles the 3-Series and 5-Series sedans, the X1 sport-utility vehicle and the diesel variant of the X3 SUV at its plant in Chennai. Sahr said that the company will start to assemble the flagship 7-Series by the middle of next year, and the assembly of 1-Series will begin from January next year. The Chennai plant has the capacity to assemble 11,000 vehicles a year.
BMW at present imports X5, X6 and the 6-Series as completely built units (CBU) and its overall cost rises as more taxes are charged on these vehicles as compared to those assembled in the country. Therefore, once the assembly of the 7-Series starts in the country, its price is likely to go down and these might then be exported to some neighbouring countries as well.
