BMW Group India has said it will outperform the luxury car segment in India this year and close the calendar year with a ‘strong’ double-digit growth despite two months of shutdown during the peak of the COVID-19 second wave.
Strong recovery
The company would meet this year’s sales target as the demand recovery has been very strong,” said Vikram Pawah, president, BMW Group India.
“We are going to outperform the [luxury car] segment this year. Despite the impact of the pandemic and two months of shut down we will still report strong double-digit growth due to our robust product line up and customer centric approach,” he said.
Mr. Pawah said in the past nine months, BMW had reported a 44% growth than the same period last year, while Mini had grown 65.5% and BMW Motorrad, the motorcycle brand, had grown manifold.
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, he said the company had surpassed the sales number of 2019. In 2019, BMW had sold 8,500 units of all models, while this year it had sold more than 9,500 units so far, he said, indicating the demand recovery.
“This time the bounce back is much stronger. And this gives us confidence that we will deliver on our plan for this year and next year as well,” he added.
Mr. Pawah said for the upcoming festive season, the company had announced a campaign — BMW Joy Days — through which products will be available at an all-inclusive price covering the product, insurance, maintenance, and road tax.
This year, the company had already introduced 24 products and four more would be rolled out in the coming months. Next year, the company will add 12 more touch points, Mr. Pawah said.
He said since demand had outstripped supplies and due to chip shortage, the delivery of cars had seen a waiting period of up to six months, and the company had been ramping up production to meet the demand.
He said the company would introduce two electric cars next year and more EVs 2023 onwards.
