Owning a Beemer has never been more affordable.BMW on Thursday launched a petrol version of its compact SUV ‘X1’ at a base price of Rs22 lakh, with diesel variants coming for Rs23.9 lakh and Rs29.9 lakh. The prices are ex-showroom.
BMW’s pricing is quite competitive, with Hyundai Santa Fe coming for about Rs21 lakh, Toyota Fortuner for about Rs20 lakh and the recently launched Skoda Yeti at about `15 lakh for the base version.
With such pricing, it is no wonder that BMW is hopeful of making X1 its largest selling model in India this year.
BMW India president Andreas Schaaf said that he had every intention of maintaining BMW’s number one position in the luxury car market. “We will do our utmost to stay No. 1 ...we expect X1 to become our biggest volume model in 2011.”
As on date, the Series 3 and 5 sedans are its biggest volume models in this country. The 3-series begins at Rs23.95 lakh whereas the 5-series starts at Rs38.9 lakh. Schaaf said there were already 1,000 pre-bookings for the X1 and that the company was sold out till March next year.
The X1 comes in a 1.8 litre petrol option and two variants of the 2 litre diesel. BMW has launched 2-wheel drives for each variant and the diesel variants can go from 0-100 kmpl in 8.3 seconds flat. The company claims that the petrol X1 drives for 11.25 km to a litre whereas the diesel ones go 15.24 km.
To a question on capacity expansion, Scaaf that production at its Chennai assembly has been raised to 8,000 units a year from 5,400 earlier and more capacity would be added if required.
The company has managed to stay marginally ahead of arch rival Mercedes Benz India all through 2010, selling 5,345 Beamers against 5,109 Mercs between January and November this year.
On the overall growth of luxury car segment in India, Scaaf said it is expected to almost double to 15,000 units this year. “If the market continues to grow at 25 per cent, in ten years time India will be among the top 10 markets of BWM globally.”
On plans to enter the premium bike market in India, he said BMW has not yet started the business, although some bikes are already in India and deliveries are expected to start by the first week of January.
