Encouraged by the response from the Indian market and carefully gauging the future potential, BMW India has firmed up plans to str­engthen its presence by expanding its production capa­city and dealership network over the next two years.

It is also planning to invest $ 50 million in BMW Financial Services India during the period to get a str­onger foothold in retail finance and car leasing.

“India cannot compete with other high-volume si­ngle markets yet. But the future belongs to India. If you want to benefit from the dynamics of the Indian market later, you need to act today,” Peter Kronsc­hnabl, preside­nt, BMW In­dia, told reporters here on Thursday, after unveiling two new variants of its fast selling BMW 3 Series sedan.

The new variants are BMW 3 Series — 320d Corporate Edition (diesel) and 330i (petrol). While the ex-showroom price of the former is Rs 23.95 lakh, the latter is priced at Rs 33.4 lakh.

“This year we will also launch the new BMW X1 in India and it will be CKD produced at the Chennai plant, which already produces the BMW 3 series and the BMW 5 series,” Kronschnabl said.

“Over the next 24 mo­n­ths, we will be investing $ 50 million in BMW Financial Services India to offer retail financing for BMW custo­mers and multi-make customers, besides financing fleet owners, providing commercial financing for BMW dealerships and mul­ti-make dealerships,” he said. The company is awaiting RBI nod for NBFC status for the financing arm.

According to Kronsch­na­bl, leasing options have not been extensively explored in the Indian car market, whi­ch has a great potential especially in the corporate sector. BMW will be the first luxury car brand to enter this seg­ment. “We have retail finan­cing operations in all the major markets with larger potential,” he said.

The firm is also keen to increase the capacity of its Chennai plant inside Mahi­ndra World City. He however declined to indicate the li­kely investment and the increase in capacity from the current 3,000 units per an­num.

BMW plans to expand its dealership network by tapping tier II cities as well. The company has covered the top ten cities in the first phase. “We are looking at cities like Ludhiana, Lucknow and Indore, where we can easily sell 30 to 40 cars a year. In fact, in Jaipur, we were able to sell 40 cars in four months,” he added.

Against 2,908 cars sold in calendar year 2008 in India, the company sold 3,619 un­its in 2009, registering a 24 per cent growth. “We are co­nfident of achieving double-digit growth this year too,” he pointed out, but declined to indicate an actual growth target in percentage terms.