Luxury car maker BMW announced the commencement of local production of MINI Cooper Countryman at its manufacturing plant in Chennai, making it the only country outside of Europe to manufacture the variant.
“With the production of MINI Countryman at the BMW Plant Chennai, MINI is the first premium small car to be locally manufactured in India and expects significant growth over the medium and long-term,” the company said.
Mini Countryman will be introduced in two diesel variants — MINI Cooper D Countryman and MINI Cooper D Countryman High.
A new petrol variant in MINI ONE Countryman will also be produced at the Chennai plant.
“We do not have any plans for exports from our Chennai plant. Long term could be but for now all cars manufactured here are for the Indian market,” Philipp von Sahr, President (BMW Group-India) said.
Sahr said that the current maximum capacity of their existing plant was 13,000 units.
The premium small car range begins with `26,60,000 for the Mini Cooper and `37,50,000 for the Mini Cooper S Countryman High.
BMW Chennai plant, spread on a 40-acre land at Mahindra World City here, currently produces BMW 3 series, BMW 5 series, BMW X1, BMW X3. Besides MINI Cooper, the company in 2013 will also produce BMW 7 series and the BMW 1 series.
India is the 100th market in the global MINI sales network and has set up five exclusive outlets across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
