Despite having lost to Mercedes- Benz in January sales, luxury carmaker BMW India said

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it is confident of retaining leadership this year on the back of two new series it plans to launch.

"I am very much confident that we will retain the number one position... We will have a double-digit growth this year," BMW India President Peter Kronschnabl said at a CII event here.

"For me, it is not a surprise (Mercedes selling more cars in January). We will have a couple of months where they will sell more than us, but what matters is December 31. We still have 11 months to go for that," he said, adding that the company will introduce two new series in the Indian market.

While one of the series would be X1, he declined to disclose the other.

Last year, BMW India displaced Mercedes-Benz's years-long leadership position in the luxury segment by selling 3,619 units. Mercedes-Benz had sold 3,247 units in 2009.

The new year, however, has started with Mercedes-Benz driving much ahead of BMW India by selling more cars at 403 units against the latter's 341 units.

Kronschnabl said during some months, companies have special sales, but did not elaborate.

Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, is upgrading its dealerships across the country that will entail investments of up to Rs 200 crore-- to be borne by both dealers and the company.