The Hindu Business Line : BMW to review ‘Mini’ launch in India

“No decision has been taken so far on launching the Mini,” Mr Peter Kronschnabl, President, BMW India Private Ltd, said at a news conference here on Thursday.

The hatchback model of the three-door, 4-seater car, if imported, would cost approximately Rs 20 lakh. If manufactured in India, the cost would be about Rs 15 lakh. However, BMW now rules out the possibility of manufacturing the Mini at its Chennai plant, due to lack of sufficient numbers.

Mr Kronschnabl said the Mini cannot be sold through the BMW dealer network as it is an independent brand.

“The company needs to invest heavily on brand building and creating delivery mechanism for the Mini,” he said, adding that viability of such huge expenditure with the current economic conditions was a major concern.

“BMW is not interested in launching the car in a hurry and kill the brand as well as fail to live up to our promises to the channel partners.”

Sales outlook

Meanwhile, the company is expecting a better sales outlook for BMW in July-December.

Having set a sales target of 3,000 cars in India during 2009, BMW sold 1,747 in the first half of this year, up by 12 per cent when compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

“Luxury cars’ sales grew by a mere 1-2 per cent in India during the January-June 2009 period. Accordingly we outperformed the industry growth rates during the period. There is potential that the luxury car market will pick up in the country in the second half of this year,” he said.

Mr Kronschnabl expects the global economic slowdown to ease a little bit in six months.

According to the company, India has sold a total of 7,400 luxury cars in 2008, roughly 10 per cent of which were luxury SUVs.