The Germany based BMW has recently announced that they will be releasing the Mini luxury car in India in 2012. The small car will be optimized for Indian market and will feature many interesting accessories.
Andreas Schaaf, president of BMW India, has said that they are planning to develop the brand image of the Mini before its release next year. He also added that they will introduce one dealership in Mumbai and two more in the Delhi area. They also intend to open up to four dealerships in 2013 and the three more will be added in 2014.
Since the Mini is supposed to be a luxury automobile it will be targeting the upper class customers in India. BMW has indicated that the Mini will probably cost more than 25 lakh INR. The car was meant to be released by BMW in the year 2009 but the project was postponed to due viability reasons.
The Mini brand includes several models like coupe, convertible, hatchback, countryman and clubman. BMW will not be releasing all these variants and instead introduce only selective models suited to the Indian automotive market.
The biggest premium car brand in India BMW hopes to increase its activities in Indian region and is aiming to sell around 70,000 units annually by the year 2020. BMW currently manufactures the 3-series and 5-series models in the India and the 7-series cars are only assembled from imported kits. High quality automakers Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are presently the most formidable competitors for BMW that can threaten its share in the Indian markets.
Source: http://www.inautonews.com/mini-to-come-in-india-from-2012
