BMW India, a leading luxury electric car space in the country for the past two years will localize its electric vehicle portfolio as the volume increases as stated by a senior company official.
BMW India sold 1,474 units of electric vehicles in 2023, growing 325% y-o-y over 2022 where around 347 units were delivered.
BMW’s upcoming EV lineup includes five completely built-up CBU models – BMW iX1, BMW i4, BMW iX, BMW i7, and Mini 3-Door Cooper SE.
In 2023 BMW iX was the largest selling luxury electric car in India at 694 units. The Mini 3-Door Cooper SE listed a sales of 239 units, being the top-selling luxury electric hatchback.
The electric vehicles made up over 10% of the company’s highest-ever annual car sales at 14,172 units in 2023.
BMW Group India President
BMW India president Vikram Pawah talking to IndiaToday.in said: At the moment electric vehicles are the pretty new business for us. In 2023 we have been able to get 10% of our sales from electric vehicles. So no BMW expects that as volume grows, we will start looking at when to localize, as we do with any other product, So it is just a matter of time.”
But as far as our overall localization method is concerned, 90% of the products that we sell in India are locally manufactured, and have a localization content of 50%” he added.
BMW India’s president believes that luxury electric vehicles have a bright future in India and this division will grow in the coming years. When you talk about the premium space, you have to understand the customer mindset and I think it will grow. These customers are a little bit more liberal and they want to adopt the latest technologies. I assume electric vehicles will be more common in premium space as compared to the mass segment”.
Unlike the most common segment, which is being dominated by SUVs and sedans experiencing a continued decline, the sales are more stable in the luxury segment, as can be seen from the results of BMW’s performance in 2023.
The BMW SUV segment contributed 54% to the company’s volume, while the sedan segment had a share of 46%.
The top-selling SUV was the BMW X1 at 2,633 units, and the second top was the X7 at 1,513 units.
In the BMW sedan segment, the 3 series was the highest-selling sedan at 2,702 units, followed by the BMW 66 series at 1,453 units.
Good Balance between SUVs and Sedan – Pawah
We have found good stability between SUVs and sedans. For us, the proposal for our customers is they should be able to choose between an SUV and a sedan at every price point.
The choice again depends upon the usage and requirements of the customer. So that is why we see a very good blend at 54% for SUVs and 46% for sedans, which is a very close mix, Pawah said.
The petrol segment made up 54% of the total volume of the company. The share of the diesel segment which was almost 65% five years ago, fell to 36% in 2023.
This fall Pawah said: We had to remember when it was 65% it was not based on customer’s requirement, but on the fuel policy because diesel was more affordable than petrol and that is what created the demand for diesel vehicles at that point in time.
As soon as the fuel subsidy was eliminated, the natural demand for diesel started growing. Currently, what we are witnessing is natural demand without the influence of any external factors.
In 2023 the luxury car market registered the highest-ever annual volume at nearly 41,000 units, beating the previous record of around 40,000 units in 2018. These numbers will even grow in the near future Pawah added.
We lag much behind in luxury car space compared to the rest of the world as we are still only 1.2% of the total market in India. China is at a 17% adoption rate, and Europe is at 24%.
Apart from internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric models, BMW also features hybrid models, which is the flagship BMW XM.