BMW to drive new ’5 Series’ to India in 2010 to push volumes
MUNICH:German luxury carmaker BMW on Wednesday said it will bring the latest version ofits sedan ’5 Series’ to India this year in order to drive volumes and ward offincreasing competition from compatriots– Mercedes and Audi.
“Therefreshed 5 Series will be launched globally later this month and we intend tolaunch it in India within 2010. the price is yet to be decided for the Indiamarket,” BMW Global Director (Marketing and Planning) Markus Schram told PTIhere.
he said while the 5 Series will mainly compete with Mercedes’E Class, BMW “wants to set a new trend in the luxury car segment with thisseries in India”.
“The new car will be aimed at driving volumes inthe Indian market,” Schram said, adding, “The main intention is to maintainmomentum in the Indian market against our rival from Stuttgart (Mercedes) andIngolstadt (Audi).”
Schram, however, declined to comment on variantsof the new refreshed series, but said “our portfolio will be strong”.
In 2009, BMW overtook Mercedes as the numero uno luxury carmaker inthe Indian market with sales of 3,619 units against 3,247 units of the rival.
Announcing the company’s annual results, BMW AG Chairman NorbertReithofer said, “We plan to grow our sales again in China, Brazil and India inthe current year.”
the company today reported net profit of 210million euro (about Rs 1,315 crore) in 2009 against 330 million euro (about2,067 crore) last year, down 36.4 per cent on account of higher effective taxrate.
BMW’s total total revenue was down 4.7 per cent to 50,681million euro in 2009, from 53,197 million euro in 2008.
its totalglobal sales in 2009 stood at 1,286,310 units (BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce)against 1,435,876 units in 2008, down 10.4 per cent.
Commenting onthe outlook for this year, Reithofer said, “We are heading into the new businessyear with cautious optimism and are targeting group earnings well above thelevel reported for the past year. we want to see visible progress in 2010 in thedirection of our profitability targets for 2012.”
he said thecompany intended to remain the world’s leading provider of premium cars in 2010and plans to increase sales within a solid single-digit percentage range to 1.3million vehicles.
BMW to drive new ’5 Series’ to India in 2010 to push volumes