Localisation strategy helping sales grow in India: BMW’s Vikram Pawah

Vikram Pawah, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India 

Luxury car maker BMW Group India on Thursday said its localisation strategy is helping the sales grow and there are over 1,500 bookings of its recently launched iX1 long WheelBase luxury electric vehicle (EV) that is locally assembled in its Chennai plant.

“We produce all our major selling models in India; 10 products including the first electric iX1 Long Wheelbase as well. Locally produced vehicles have helped the company to provide cars at a reasonable price to all our customers, and that’s the main thing… we are able to provide the cars quickly to the market, and at the right price points,” Vikram Pawah, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India told businessline.

531 km range

The iX1 was launched at the Bharat Mobility in January priced at ₹49 lakh (ex-showroom) with a range of up to 531 km. The pricing of the vehicle also beats some of the EVs launched by mass market players in the country.

“Our strategy for EVs has been fairly simple. We pass on the benefits of GST to the customer, which makes the on-road pricing of EVs similar to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. So, the customer gets to choose based on their use cases and not based on the pricing,” Pawah said.

BMW Group India currently offers six electric cars: BMW i7, BMW iX, BMW i5, BMW i4, BMW iX1 Long Wheelbase, Mini Countryman E, and two electric scooters BMW CE 04 and BMW CE 02.

Meanwhile, the company reported seven per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in its sales in the first quarter of this calendar year at 3,914 units (of BMW and Mini cars) as compared with 3,680 units sold in January-March period last year. In the EV segment, the company grew by 206 per cent y-o-y delivering 646 units of BMW and Mini cars, he noted.

BMW long wheelbase models have captured growth of 187 per cent y-o-y, while sports activity vehicles (like X5, X3) contributed 55 per cent to sales with 2,079 units.

However, sales of its motorcycles under BMW Motorrad delivered 1,373 units during the quarter, a decline of 24 per cent y-o-y as compared with 1,810 units in January-March 2024. Pawah added it is due to change of generations that is happening and therefore, the decline in sales.

The luxury car market in India grew by six per cent year on year in calendar year CY2024 to around 51,200 units compared with around 48,500 units in CY2023.

Recently, Audi India also announced sales of 1,223 units in Q1, a 17 per cent increase over the same period last year. Market leader Mercedes-Benz India is yet to announce its Q1 numbers.

Published on April 3, 2025