IANS quoted BMW on December 19th Wednesday said that it may look at manufacturing its MINI brand in India but that would depend on the market potential for the premium small car.
Mr Philipp von Sahr president of BMW Group India said that the company's first priority was to establish MINI as a brand.
Mr Sahr said that "BMW Group has a policy that production follows market. The MINI market is huge and I would not exclude we will produce here."
He said that "At the moment we are in the learning phase. We will not exclude MINI production facility in India but at the moment it is 100% imported car and we are 100% concentrated on learning how the brand is accepted."
He added that BMW was sourcing many parts of MINI from India for its world wide production.
He said that "India is really an important supplier market for BMW Group, especially for MINI. Lot of techniques, especially engine technique, in MINI are from India," adding that localization in other brands would also increase.
Hyderabad became the third city after Mumbai and Delhi to see the rollout of the premium brand in the small car segment.
Since the launch in January, BMW has sold 280 MINI cars till November and expects to end the year with 300 units.
KUN Exclusive, exclusive dealership for MINI, also opened in Hyderabad. This is the fourth dealership of the brand and the company expects the number to go up to eight in 2014.
Source:
http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/BMW_may_look_at_MINI_production_in_India/296004.html
