BMW Launches Locally Made X5 At Rs 70.9 Lakh

The company does not manufacture the X Series anywhere in Europe, including the home market Germany.

The X5xDrive is the third launch by the company this year after the M6-Grand Coupe and 3 Series GT since January.

BMW sells the imported models like the 6 Series Gran Coupe, the X6, the Z4 and the M6 Gran Coupe through its 38 dealers. Sahr said the number of dealerships will touch 50 by December, 2015.

Sahr said the company will be launching 6-8 models through the rest of the year such as the M3 Sedan, the M4 Coupe and the M5 Sedan.

It may be noted that after being the market leader in India in the luxe car space for three years continuously, BMW lost its market leadership to two other German rivals? the late entrant Audi and Mercedes Benz in recent years.

In fact, Audi has been so successful that it has even pushed Merc to the second slot last year.

The BMW Group has three brands in the country the BMW, the MINI and the Rolls-Royce, and has so far invested Rs 390 crore (51.8 million euros) in the Chennai plant, which has an installed capacity of 13,000 units per annum, which Sahr said is being ramped up to 17,000 units shortly.

But he did not put a timeline for this or investment plans.

The BMW Group introduced the MINI as a premium brand in the country in January 2012 with the launch of the Hatch, the Convertible and the Countryman.

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