Saar: Out of the seven outlets that the Bavarian automaker has planned for this year, most will be built in emerging cities.
BMW India’s head honcho, Vikram Pawah, believes that it is time that smaller towns from across the country start driving the luxury car market. Pawah said that the company is focusing on emerging cities, opening outlets in Ranchi, Aurangabad and Madurai recently. BMW India is also aiming to set up dealerships in a majority of seven cities it plans to expand by the end of this year.
In Pawah’s own words, who was present at the opening of a dealership in Ahmedabad recently:
“Smaller towns are the future of the (luxury car) industry. We are clearly seeing growth coming from these emerging towns, which is why we are reaching out to these towns more and more. Out of the seven outlets planned for this year, most will come from emerging towns.”
This strategy also falls in line for the company’s target of doubling the Mini brand’s sales in India this year. At the launch of the new Mini Countryman in India earlier this month, Pawah categorically mentioned that the company is aggressively working to enhance the value of its existing products and also focusing to expand its distribution network. The Mini brand will get two new showrooms this year, bringing the total count to seven.
Pawah also touched upon the challenges BMW and other luxury carmakers are facing in India due to GST. While calling GST a “fantastic” initiative, Pawah also expressed dissatisfaction with the way it was implemented. He said:
“I am hoping the final aim of GST is to look at uniform tax rates. We hope at some point we will start looking at the category of cars as cars. If that happens, we will surely see people like you and me able to get luxury cars much easier.”
As per him, rationalisation of the GST structure in line with the international norms will surely help the Indian automotive market to grow faster. He clearly believes that the market has the potential to outgun itself if the norms in place are more favourable.
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