After making space for the X7 on its official website, BMW India has announced that the said model, along with the X4, will be locally assembled at its plant in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Both models are likely to start their Indian innings within the first quarter of this year, with the X7 expected by the end of January and the X4 before the current fiscal ends.

As revealed before, the variant that will most likely kickstart the X7’s period of play in India will be the M50d. This particular one won’t be built locally for one very good reason – it isn’t expected to get a lot of traction on our shores. Why? Because it is the most expensive variant of BMW’s flagship SUV that there is. However, the X7 will get its line-up expanded in India with the introduction of two more variants – xDrive40i and the xDrive30d. Those will be assembled locally to keep the price tags on the same planet.

No points for guessing, the 40i will be a petrol variant and the 30d will be a diesel. Both will have BMW’s all-wheel-drive system and 8-speed automatic transmission. The former will house a 3.0-litre, 6-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine which puts out 340PS/450Nm. That’s good for a 0-100kmph sprint time of 6.1 seconds and a top speed of 245kmph. The latter will get a 3.0-litre, 6-cylinder turbo-diesel mill with 265PS/620Nm on tap. BMW claims that the oomph is enough for the SUV to hit 100kmph from a standstill in 7.0 seconds and reach 227kmph at full stretch. For the record, both those engines have been lifted directly from the BMW 7 Series.

The BMW X4, on the other hand, will hit the ground running in India as a locally assembled SUV coupé. It is to the X3 as the X6 is to the X5. The BMW X4 will borrow its powertrain options for the X3. Hence, it will be offered with two tags – xDrive30i and xDrive20d. The former will get you a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol motor with 252PS/350Nm on tap. The latter will house a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine which puts out 190PS/400Nm. Apart from the all-wheel-drive systems, both variants will also share the 8-speed automatic transmission.

BMW Group will be launching a number of products in India this year. Apart from the abovementioned X-marked models, the company will also land the all-new 3 Series, the Z4, the new X5 SUV and the 8 Series.