Advancing its international market strategy, the BMW group will make a formal entry into India.
The wide range of activities planned for the country include the establishment of a production and sales subsidiary.
Apart from sales subsdiary in Delhi area, the company will build an assembly plant for BMW automobiles in Chennai and expand its leadership network to all metropolitan centres of the country, a company release said on Wednesday.
"The opening up of the Indian market is an important step in the company's expansion plans in Asia. The Indian automobile market offers significant growth potential in the long term. With our increased presence here, we will be well positioned to fully tap into this potential," Helmut Panke, chairman of the board of management of BMW AG, said.
The company was targeting an annual sales of 150,000 units of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce cars in the Asian markets by 2008. In fiscal 2004, the company sold 95,482 automobiles in Asia.
The production and sales subsdiary will be owned 100 percent by BMW group and will commence business operations at the beginning of 2007.
Initial investments will be a total of 20 million Euros. The plant will produce BMW 3 Series and 5 Series saloons and production was intended solely for the local market.
In addition to operating the assembly plant and importing BMW cars, the tasks of the subsidiary will also include developing the dealer organisation, deciding on pricing and product strategy, as well as marketing and after-sales.
In the medium term, the company will employ around 200 people in India and upto 600 additional jobs will be created in the dealer and service network, the release added.
