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BMW India set to hit India government’s 30% ELECTRIC CAR sales target in 2 years: CEO

On the sidelines of the unveling event, Hardeep Singh Brar, president and chief executive officer, BMW Group India, who took charge on September 1, spoke with t2 about the way forward for him and the company. Excerpts

Hardeep Singh Brar, president and CEO, BMW Group India, introducing the Mini JCW Countryman All4 Pictures courtesy BMW Group India

Abhijit Mitra
Published 22.10.25, 08:02 AM

BMW Group India, which includes Mini, has been on a roll for the last couple of years. In the first nine months this year, it has sold about as many cars as it did for the whole of 2022 and has been bringing out a new car every few weeks. It rolled out the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman All4 last week, which is the most powerful Mini there has ever been. On the sidelines of the unveling event, Hardeep Singh Brar, president and chief executive officer, BMW Group India, who took charge on September 1, spoke with t2 about the way forward for him and the company. Excerpts.

Things are very fluid in the automotive market right now. So what’s the way ahead for BMW and how do you see yourself going forward?

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We’ve been growing at a pretty good rate of 12-13 per cent for the last four to five years. To give you a perspective, during Covid we had a number of almost 6,000 units and we now should be closing about 17,000-18,000 this year. So, almost three times the numbers in last five years, which is a very good progress.

We’re launching a lot of products. This year we launched five new products, and 16 upgrades or product interventions in all our products. So, almost 21 interventions. Next year, we are again doing some 15 interventions. Product is the starting point in luxury and the consumer wants changes every now and then and that’s what we are trying to add into our portfolio.

On top of this, we are also becoming stronger in electric vehicles because we feel there’s a good scope there and our iX1 has done extremely well and i7, which is at the top. So two extremes, entry and top, both electric, have done quite well and customers are loving the space that we are providing, the range that we are providing, the technology that we are providing and the features that we are providing.

It’s not just electric, but the entire package is what is liked by the people.

What’s the plan ahead for making EVs in India?

We are making electric. We are 21 per cent of our contribution is coming from electric cars. We have 60 per cent of share coming from electric vehicles. So iX1 is the one which we are producing locally.

It doesn’t make a huge price difference in electric cars whether you import or you don’t, right?

So, you know, on the SKDs, then you have 35 per cent duties, which is higher than when you make it locally. But then, you know, you don’t have the 100 per cent wherewithal in India. For example, the battery cells and the battery packs, nobody is making in India. So, you are actually importing, even if they are assembling it here, the raw material and the cells are actually being imported.

The rest of it is being imported...

So i7 is a CBU (a completely-built unit import). i5, i4, iX and Mini Continental E. Yeah, they are all CBUs.

And how do you see the prospects for future growth?

Yeah, so see, till now, the industry was slowing down before the GST cut. After the GST cut, there has been a good spurt. September bookings were up by 40 per cent. October bookings are also 40 per cent up year on year.

Do you think it will sustain in the longer run?

I don’t think it will sustain. Such huge numbers will not sustain. But to give you a perspective, before Covid, the luxury car segment was growing at about 5-6 per cent. I feel by the year end it will grow up to 9 per cent to 10 per cent. I think anywhere from 8 per cent to 10 per cent looks more realistic for next year (2026), which is quite good.

Which are the segments of the market which are showing the real growth spurts?

It is all across. Because of the impact, for example, our highest price drop has been about 9 lakh, which is for the X7 at the top end. Of course, entry level we didn’t have because our entry is with electric. So there’s not much price drop. But on the whole, we have also seen the bookings going up.

While in electric there was no price difference. But we see a lot of customers coming because of the entire euphoria which is there. So it is helping us in all the segments from bottom to top in terms of growth.

Are you seeing any roadblocks right now?

Roadblocks, what I can say is in terms of electric, the charging infrastructure is a roadblock for the growth of EVs. If we have to make electric grow, charging infrastructure is very, very important. Another factor that I can see which is impacting a lot of buyers is the trade barriers in the US. So a lot of people have been impacted by that. Some consumers are in IT also, there is an issue. So there also I see a bit of an impact. Not very huge, but yes, there will be an impact.

So you’re seeing an impact in the demand side?

Yeah. Also, you know, the stockmarket, as you know, that is not doing great. So, anybody who’s dependent on IT, on exports, on the stockmarket, there’ll be some kind of stress there. But that has been more than compensated by the drop in GST. So GST is positive, others are negative. But GST far overshadows everything else. Otherwise, the growth would be even if we solve all these problems, growth could be even bigger than that.

What is your way forward with electrics?

So we want to bring electrics in all the categories wherever we can. And we want to grow the chart. Today, 21 per cent of our contribution is coming from electric cars, which is one of the highest in the country. Our market share in electric in the luxury segment is almost 60 per cent, which is, again, one of the highest. The Indian government had announced a 30 per cent target by 2030. We will, I think, achieve just in the next two years. So, I think electric is going great for us. And there’s a lot of emphasis on that.

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