Local assembly of EVs just a matter of time: BMW

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. In the H1 of 2023, its total luxury car sales, comprising BMW and MINI brands, in India stood at 5,867 units.

“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 said. 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.