The German premium auto maker BMW India on Thursday said its product and growth strategy in India in 2020 would revolve around two broad areas — getting more new customers into the brand’s fold with an aggressive focus on the entry-level portfolio and driving existing customers to upgrade to higher segments.

The company plans to launch 12 new vehicles under its BMW and MINI brands and five new introductions under BMW Motorrad, its superbike brand, during this calendar year, Rudratej Singh, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India, told Business Line while announcing the launch of company’s new X1, an entry level locally-assembled premium SUV, which comes at a starting price of ₹35.9 lakh (ex-showroom).

Accelerate sales

He said the new X1 has been launched to accelerate the sales momentum of the premium SUV further. The company claimed X1 is the segment leader and it contributed about a third of BMW brand’s sales. X1’s volumes are reported to be much higher the combined volumes of its two nearest competitors in the segment.

The company believes that the new X1, its pricing and the comprehensive packages announced for the premium SUV would bring in more non-BMW customers under its fold. Among others, the package addresses some of the key barriers for the new customers such as resale and cost of maintenance.

The company offers a 5-year / 60,000-km service and warranty package for the new X1 at a price of ₹15,000 for petrol variants and ₹20,000 for diesel models. Also, an assured 5-year buy-back value of ₹15 lakh and flexible end of term options.

“We have to keep driving access as much as also being aspirational. Access has many variables such as buy-back and cost of ownership which we have addressed, we have also invested deeply in expanding our physical access. Our network grew by about 45 per cent in the last one year itself and it will continue to grow,” said Singh.

Entry sedan segment

The company is aggressively looking at entry sedan segment where it sees a gap and aims to fill it with a product as part of its future launches.

“Our goal is clear. We will use our products to get more people into our segment and upgrade current segment users to more premium categories,” he added.

In terms of shaping segments, BMW has seen a strong traction in customers’ upgrade to segments such as 7 Series in premium sedans and X5 and X7 in premium SUVs.

On the impact of coronavirus, he said there were larger structural headwinds in the market than Covid-19. “I think the market recovery will be slow and I am hoping that new issues like coronavirus don’t slow the process of supply chain availability,” he added.

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