BMW to locally produce EVs in India amid robust demand: Official

BMW will locally produce its electric vehicles in India, and it is just a matter of time as the company's vehicles continue to gain traction in the market, according to a senior company official.

The German luxury carmaker, which had 9 per cent of its total sales in India from January to June come from EVs, expects to have 25 per cent by 2025.

"As the volumes grow, as we have done with every other product, we will localise them (EVS), and produce them locally," said Vikram Pawah, BMW Group India President, in an interview with PTI.

He added that the localisation of EVs in the country has two aspects, volume and technology.

"It is just a matter of time. There has to be some inertia in the volumes and some stability. We're seeing good signs now. It's still early days... We have delivered only 500 cars across four models in the first six months, that is still small from that perspective, but it is clearly growing fast," said Pawah, talking about BMW's plans for producing its EVs in India.

Volume 

BMW's electric vehicles comprise models like the i7, iX, i4, and MINI SE.

"We sold over 500 cars in the first half (of 2023), which is 46 per cent more than what we sold in the entire year last year... We are the absolute leaders in the premium electric vehicle segment because we have over 50 per cent market share," he said, adding the company's iX is the best-selling battery electric vehicle in the Indian market.

Technology

BMW i7 | Image Credit: BMW

On the other aspect of technology, he said it needs to be stabilised as well.

"We, as BMW, are already on generation five batteries because we started way back in 2013. We are not new to this technology. We have already progressed so far that we are already into generation five of this technology, and we are already working on generation six. So we'll make a decision about what is the right time, which one to localise at which time, etc. It will be soon," Pawah said.

"At the moment, it's only 8-9 per cent of our sales, but we'll grow it further...I think clearly 15 per cent is a very close number that'll happen next year, and by 2025, we could be looking at somewhere between 20 and 25 per cent," he added, talking about the outlook for EVs' contribution to the sales of BMW in the country.  

BMW X7 | Image Credit: BMW

BMW's total luxury car sales stood at 5,867 units from January to June. including BMW and MINI brands.

"Once you have so much variety, of course, the percentage will increase," said Pawah. 

(With PTI inputs)