Mumbai, Jan 10 (PTI) Buoyed by the best-ever annual sales and the highest growth rate in a decade on the back of the largest number of launches in 2022, the BMW Group India is on course to do an encore this year.

The domestic unit of the German luxe carmaker sold 35 per cent more cars (BMWs and Minis combined) in 2022 at 11,981 units (of which 11,268 were BMWs, 37 per cent more than it sold the previous year), making it the highest-ever deliveries in its history here for the mother brand.

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Its two-wheeler brand Motorrad also had its best-ever sales in the year delivering 7,282 units, a full 40 per cent growth year-on-year.

The company also had the busiest year in terms of launches last year -- as many as 26 launches, of which 17 were BMWs, three were Minis and six were Motorrad bikes. Of the total, eight were all new launches, five were facelifts and 13 were variants of the existing models.

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"We are very confident of continuing our record sales and launches in 2022 into 2023 given our three-pronged strategy of customer centricity through products, services and customer engagement.

"We will continue to launch the products that customers want and expand our market reach by opening six more touch-points this year, which is double of what we had added last year taking the total touch-points to 80," BMW Group India president Vikram Pawah told PTI.

We had the best-ever year in India since our inception in 2007. This achievement is a direct result of an unwavering focus on bringing the most exclusive products, offering the best services and our deep engagement towards meeting customer expectations, Pawah elaborated.

Pawah said BMW locally assembles as many as 13 models at its Chennai plant and sources 50 per cent of parts locally and will launch eight models of the planned 18 lunches in the first eight weeks of 2023. It kicked off the model offensive with three models of the 7 Series, which includes an all-electric variant of the i7 last Saturday.

We will roll out as many as 18 models, he said, refusing to elaborate on the model details.

Pawah said BMW is the leader in the luxury electric vehicles space in the country, with three models already on roads, and will continue to lead the space going forward and the i7 launch last week cements that resolve.

Its EV range includes iX SAV, the i4 sedan and the Mini 3-door Cooper SE hatchback. It also offers charging stations in 32 cities.

"We have just started the new year with a strong EV offensive with the launch of the first-ever BMW i7, which is an all-electric luxury sedan, clearly demonstrating how an exclusive driving experience can be combined with an unwavering commitment to sustainability," he said, adding "we will have three EV launches in the next 180 days".

It can be noted that BMW is already the global leader in luxury EVs having already delivered more than 1.5 lakh units of BMWs and Minis in 2022, more than doubling the 2021 volume. It has also overtaken Mercedes and Audi to become the largest luxury carmaker globally last year.

At this number, as much as 15 per cent of our global sales are EVs last year, said Jean-Philippe Parain, the senior vice president for Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at the BMW Group.

On India, Parain said the best-ever sales in 2022 made the country one of the fastest-growing markets for the company globally.

"India is not among the top 10 markets for us globally. But it has huge potential for faster and higher growth and become a lead market for us," he said without offering a timeline for the same.

"India volume has never been so high and so, is our optimism, which comes from the strong fundamentals of the very resilient economy, pro-growth policies of the government and the conducive regulatory environment," Parain said.

Last Saturday the company also introduced the next-generation BMW 7 Series with three variants -- petrol, diesel and EV (i7), priced at upwards of Rs 1.7 crore. While the petrol and diesel variants of the 7 Series are made in the Chennai plant, the i7 EV is a completely built-up unit (imported).

Pawah said the company has so far invested Rs 1,250 crore in the country since its entry in January 2007 and sells an array of models from the mother brand and Mini along with Motorrad and a host of imported units.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)