German luxury carmaker BMW today announced up to 50 per cent local sourcing of components for its cars made in India, up from 20 per cent, to increase efficiencies and economies of scale.
BMW also said it will launch 15 new models this year, some of them new variants of the existing ones, to increase its brand visibility and market share in India.
Of the 15 launches lined up, it has already unveiled in February one premium model - the over Rs 2 crore BMW I-8 with electric as well as petrol engine.
"We are happy to announce that we have increased our content localisation to 50 per cent for all the 8 models that we manufacture at our plant here. Earlier our parts localisation was only 20 per cent," BMW India president Philipp von Sahr told PTI.
The company had invited its brand face in the country Sachin Tendulkar to "assemble" a locally sourced engine onto a BMW 5 Series at the Chennai plant, which has an installed capacity for 14,000 units per annum.
The cricket legend marked the occasion at the company's manufacturing unit at the Mahindra World City, Singaperumalkovil near Chennai, by assembling BMW 5 Series using parts from Indian auto-component suppliers.
Some of the major auto-components sourced for local production of cars at the plant are engine and transmission from Force Motors, axles from ZF Hero Chassis; door panels and wiring harness from Draexlmaier India; exhaust systems from Tenneco Automotive India, heating and ventilating, air-conditioning and cooling modules from Valeo India among others. From Force Motors, BMW will be sourcing 2L and 3L diesel engines to begin with, Sahr said.
On likely price reduction following half of its 2,800 parts being procured locally, Sahr said more than pricing this shows "our seriousness about this market".
He added that the company follows this strategy in China as well, where it sells over 4 lakh units a year.
BMW India is distant No.3 in the country with its two German rivals in the luxury segment, Audi and Mercedes ahead of it.
In the first quarter this year, Mercedes registered 40 per cent increase in sales to 3,566 units, overtaking Audi, which sold 3,181 units, up 10 per cent.
BMW has discontinued the practice of releasing quarterly sales figures.
Sahr declined to comment on this change, saying the company will only share annual figures from now on and added that it does not have any sales targets.
