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German luxury car maker BMW on Thursday said it has increased annual output from its Chennai plant to 11,000 units with the start of second shift from June. The company, which is present in India through a wholly owned subsidiary, today launched its sports utility vehicle X3 priced between Rs 41.2 lakh and Rs 47.9 lakh (ex-showroom, across India). "We have expanded our production facility by starting the second shift of production. The production has been expanded to 11,000 units annually from 10,000 units," BMW India President Andreas Schaaf told reporters here. Earlier in March, the company had ramped up production capacity from 8,000 to 10,000 units per year in single shift operations. "If needed we can add another assembly line, if needed we can increase the output of the second shift and if needed we can add another production site. Everything is possible on our strategy for the next 10 years," Schaaf said. He said the company was targeting to sell one...

BMW Raises India Factory Output India -- BMW AG's India unit Thursday said it has raised capacity at its factory for the fourth time in a year to meet rising demand for its luxury sedans and sport-utility vehicles in Asia's third-largest automobile market. The latest expansion will take annual capacity at the plant, located in Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, to 11,000 cars and SUVs from 10,000 previously. In December, BMW raised the plant's capacity by 48% to 8,000 units a year and then in March by 25% to 10,000 units. This was after the company raised production to 5,400 from 3,000 in September 2010. The auto maker is lifting capacity so it can assemble its new X3 SUV, which was until recently imported from its German factories. The expansion comes on the back of record growth in car and SUV sales in India. BMW expects total local sales of premium cars and SUVs to soar to 23,000-24,000 vehicles in 2011, up from 15,000 last year. Demand for luxury cars and SUVs is b...

BMW India said that the luxury car maker will be aggressive about Indian market and will bring out coupe version of 6 series. The company has also planned to launch BMW 3 series convertible by the end of this year in India. BMW has been doing pretty well in India and owns mor than 40% market share in premium car segment. The company president Andreas Schaaf is confident that they will be able to sell over 10k cars this year. The company has already sold 5364 cars till July. With the new model launch and better marketing efforts, the company can reach around 50% market share in India. BMW X3 launch was delayed in India due to technical reasons. The car has been recenly launched with starting range of Rs 42 lakh. To compete with market leader BMW, Audi has reduced the price of 2.0 litre TDI engine Q5 price to 35 lakh. Audi has been trying hard to increase its market share in India. As other markets in Eurozone and US still face lower sales, the premium car segment has been growing ...

BMW   India   2012  -  BMW   India   enhances   capacity to 11,000 units per annum BMW India, the largest luxury car maker in the Indian market, said on Thursday that it has enhanced the total output at its Chennai plant to 11,000 units. The capacity of the Chennai plant has been increased with the help of second shift that commenced in June 2011. The company had increased its capacity to 10,000 units per annum in March this year in a single shift. Speaking to reporters in Pune, BMW India President Andreas Schaaf said, "We have expanded our production facility by starting the second shift of production. The production has been expanded to 11,000 units annually from 10,000 units." He added that if needed the company can add another assembly line, or it can increase the output of the second shift and even add another production site. He specified that "everything is possible on BMW India’s strategy for the next 10 years". In ne...

Force Motors SUV 2011 - Force Motors launches SUV Force One Force Motors SUV 2011 Commercial vehicle maker Force Motors on Friday launched a SUV 'Force One' and plans to launch two more variants in 2012, its managing director said. The diesel variant SUV would be sold from September 1, the company said. "The market potential for SUVs is 70,000 vehicles and we aim to sell about 4,000 vehicles in the first year (of launch)," Prasan Firodia told reporters. Force Motors, known for its light commercial vehicle brands--Tempo, Matador and Traveller--has already invested about Rs 150 crore over the last 12-18 months in its plant to manufacture SUVs in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The plant has an installed capacity of 12,000 SUVs, which can be ramped up further. Force One will cost about 1.07 million rupees, the company said. At 1:18 p.m., shares of Force Motors were trading at 645 rupee, down 0.78 percent in a weak Mumbai market.

Force Motors 2012 - Force Motors introduces sports utility vehicle Force Motors 2012 - Force Motors introduces sports utility vehicle Force Motors announced its entry into the personal vehicles space by launching its new sports utility vehicle (SUV), Force One in Mumbai on Friday. The vehicle is priced at Rs. 10.65 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The SUV was unveiled by Abhay Firodia, Chairman and Prasan Firodia, Managing Director, Force Motors, and Force One brand ambassador Bollywood star, Amitabh Bachchan. Addressing the media, Prasan Firodia said, “The designers and engineers working on the Force One had a tough brief to develop an SUV for the discerning Indian buyer. Technologically advanced, great road presence, excellent ride and handling, immense space creating comfort at a competitive price are some of the features we have focussed on. This is an SUV tailor-made for the Indian customers.'' Over more than 50 years, Force Motors has been making high reliability eng...

Maruti Suzuki India Maruti in talks with Fiat Maruti Suzuki India is in talks with the local unit of Italy’s Fiat for diesel engines. “There has been an unprecedented rise in demand for diesel vehicles, mainly because of the pricing of the fuel. Since Fiat has spare capacity, we are evaluating buying engines from them,” R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, said. Port plan New Delhi, Aug. 19: The ministry of shipping is planning special purpose vehicles to execute seven ports. The SPVs may be allowed to raise money from the market. The government plans to set up the ports by 2017 at an investment of Rs 35,000 crore. Engineering New Delhi, Aug. 19: Engineering exports grew 187 per cent to $8.2 billion in July on the back of rising demand from new markets such as Latin America and Africa. Swiss tax pact New Delhi, Aug. 19: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the pact signed with Switzerland to share banking information on demand is likely to come into force b...