‘We want to make our India conviction even higher’

Vikram Pawah’s diverse experience in the automotive industry across multiple geographies should come in handy in his current stint as President of BMW India. At a time when the luxury car market is slowing down with more rivals in the arena, Pawah will need to rework the strategy for the two car brands, BMW and MINI, while steering BMW Motorrad brand’s motorcycle strategy. Excerpts from an interview:

On your role and new strategy direction at BMW India

I have stepped in to steer the direction for the three brands — BMW, MINI and Motorrad. We take pride in the fact that as a brand, BMW really established and explored the market’s potential during the last ten years of operations. We are still at 35,000 units, which is something I am not happy about. This is less than two per cent of the total market that means there is a long way to go.

We have done a lot of work in the past and I strongly believe we are ready to go on to the next platform, which we are internally calling the ‘Power to Lead’. We want this to be a mindset and not about a target or deadline.

Worldwide, we have put together a strategy for the next 100 years, Strategy Number One Next, where the vision is clear.

So, BMW India’s platform encapsulates the global strategy’s goals regarding leadership, catering to the mobile community and providing premium mobility solutions. We want to benchmark on multiple fronts: technology, customer engagement, dealer network and safety.

On product plans and performance expectations

We will be launching the new 5 Series later this month and the new 6 GT next year. These two models will be extremely critical for us. Earlier this year, we completed the petrol line up for all our products — the 330i, X120i and the flagship M760 Li.

This calendar year till May, we have grown by eight per cent to 3,533 units, which is good given some of the market uncertainties. The 5 Series will contribute significantly during the reminder of the year.

For me, the big picture strategy is priority. We are also working on making our conviction in India even higher and are increasing investments to ₹1,300 crore.

This will go into both BMW India and BMW Financial Services.

On the implications of the Goods and Services Tax

I think GST is good and, for that matter, any kind of single taxation across the country should help. Obviously, the bigger impact is macroeconomic as businesses become more efficient, consumption increases and economic growth accelerates.

On network expansion plans

We are in 30 cities with 41 sales outlets and 63 touch points. In addition, we reach out to 50 other cities through our mobile studio platform. So the coverage is good but not enough. There are smaller emerging towns where demand is growing. We intend expanding to 50 sales outlets by 2018 and add three more cities.

On the run up to the launch of the new 5 Series sedan

The 5 Series is one of our iconic and bestselling sub-brands. In ten years, we have sold more than 66,000 units with the 5 Series contributing to about 30 per cent. Worldwide, we continue to be the undisputed leader in that segment.

With the new 5 Series we will really be setting a benchmark in that segment where it will go above and beyond what is currently being offered by competition. We are going to call it the ‘Business Athlete’, a car that is capable of delivering both sides of the performance and comfort scale.

Your Harley experience coming in handy for this role

At the moment in Motorrad, we are focusing on just taking over from our distributor network of earlier, which was basically only Delhi and Mumbai. We have taken charge of the operations from the two and are in the process of setting up the network now with four dealers in place at Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. Our focus is now on setting up a strong dealer network and sound foundation for the Motorrad brand.

We have introduced 11 products from the lineup worldwide. The initial plan is to bring the bikes through the CBU (completely built unit) route and then think about locally assembled products. There is no point in setting up an ambitious goal without having the network or customer connect.

Worldwide, the Motorrad business has a target of 2,00,000 units. The two things that can get us there are geographic expansion, with India forming part of that plan, and segment expansion. We have traditionally been in the 500cc plus category but now the 300-500cc segment looks the fastest growing in the world. So with the G 310R coming up in the TVS collaboration, we will enter that space. The volumes from this bike will help us get to our global target. The G 310R will be launched sometime next year when we have a satisfactory sales and service network in place.

Your thoughts on the Centre’s electric mobility goals

The intention is fantastic. With the kind of challenges India faces on environmental issues and if it is going to be power surplus, that combination really makes going electric the right solution. Obviously the charging infrastructure will be an issue since it cannot be developed overnight.

We at BMW already have the ‘i’ brand, which has two platforms — plug-in hybrids and the pure electrics. Based on the experience we have had in similar kind of economies with infrastructure challenges, we feel that the main hurdle for customers is getting over range anxiety.

To achieve fleet electrification, we need a step-by-step approach. The plug-in hybrid like the i8 with a small engine is a good transition solution before the charging infrastructure is in place. But it is disappointing to see that the Centre seems to have completely missed out plug-ins while announcing the GST rates.

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