BMW likely to produce EV locally in India

New Delhi German luxury carmaker 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.

BMW, which saw 9 per cent of its sales in India coming from EVs in the first half of 2023, expects to reach up to 25 per cent by 2025. "As the volumes grow, as we have done with every other product, we will localise them (EVS), and we will produce them (locally)," BMW Group India President Vikram Pawah told.

The localisation of EVs in India has two aspects, "one is the volume here, and the other one is the technology", he noted. "It is just a matter of time. There has to be some inertia of the volumes and 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," Pawah said. He was responding to a query on BMW's plans for locally producing its EVs in India. 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 vehicles 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.