India Car Sale Report March 2010 : BMW India Has Reported Very Strong Sales In The Month of March 2010

BMW India has reported very strong sales in the month of March 2010, mainly thanks to a positive response to the recently launched 320d Corporate Edition

BMW March sales up 27% at 605 units.

German luxury carmaker BMW today reported 26.56 per cent jump in sales in March at 605 units, the highest ever sales that the company recorded in a month in India.BMW had sold 478 units in the same month last year, incidentally this was also the previous highest monthly sales record of BMW in India.The BMW 320d Corporate Edition, the base 3-series model, was made available to individuals for a mouth watering price of Rs 23.95 lakh (ex-showroom), making it Rs 10 lakh cheaper than the Highline variant.

The Corporate Edition was previously available only to the fleet customers, but BMW decided to expand the reach of its 3-series by offering the base version to individual buyers as well. The move helped BMW in selling 298 units of the 3 Series sedan, 183 units of 5 series sedan, 54 units of 7 Series sedan, 11 units of Gran Turismo and the Z4 Roadster sold 13 units in March this year as compared to 116 units the same month last year, a growth of 157 percent.

The 7-series has also posted strong sales for the month, selling 54 units of the premium luxury saloon as compared to 15 units in March 2009. In contrast to the 3- and 7-series, the 5-series has seen a drop in sales for the month selling 183 units as compared 305 units in March 2009. The company had witnessed an unusual growth in March last year, given the popularity of the 520d that took the majority of the 5-series sales pie. Also, the company is planning to launch the new generation 5-series in July and this is expected to boost sales.

During the month, In the SUV segment, the X3 sold just 3 units, while X5 clocked 20 units and 23 units of X6.
For the three month period between January and March, BMW’s cumulative sales stood at 1314 units.
Kronschnabl said with the company’s production at the Chennai plant running at full capacity, it will announce a decision on further expanding it by the middle of this year.
“With the assembly of X1 scheduled to begin later this year at the Chennai plant, we definitely need to ramp up our capacity,” he said.
The company has set a target of selling over 4,000 units this calendar year, as against 3,619 units last year.
“While we know that the kind of sales we achieved in March will be difficult to maintain but we are looking at double digits growth this year,” he said.