German luxury car manufacturer BMW rolled out its 20,000th car from its manufacturing facility located in Chennai at Sriperumbudur. BMW India now commands the number one position in the premium car segment overtaking Mercedes-Benz, which was the leader in this segment since the brand came to India.
Audi, the third German Luxury car maker has set a ambitious target to surpass both BMW and Mercedes-Benz to be the number one brand in India. Audi will launch the new Q3 SUV and facelifted A4 in India in 2012.
The company Managing Director Juergen Eder formally rolled out the 20,000th car from the assembly line, a year after the plant manufactured its 10,000th vehicle. BMW commenced its Indian operations in March 2007, with the setting up of a production plant at Sriperumbudur with an initial investment of Rs 1.1 billion.
In November 2010, the company rolled out its 10,000th unit from the plant which produces BMW 3 Series and 5 Series sedans in petrol and diesel variants. BMW also makes the X1 SUV and recently added the 4th product the X3 to its line-up.
On a single shift basis, the plant produces 5,400 units per year and employs about 400 people. Besides this facility, the car maker has a spare parts warehouse unit in Mumbai. The BMW Plant Chennai has the capacity to produce 11,000 units per year on a double shift basis.
BMW has 24 production facilities in 13 countries and has a global sales network in 140 countries employing more than 96,000 people, the company said.
