BMW India has been discussing the launch of the MINI brand in India since late 2010. In early 2011 at the BMW X1 launch, we caught up with Dr Andreas Schaaf, head honcho of BMW India to discuss the launch of the Mini brand.
He told us that that the market was not yet ready for such cars. He believed that in India people associate price with the size of the car. The bigger the car, the higher must be the price.
The Mini is exactly the opposite of that philosophy. They are small cars with higher price tag. But if and when the market conditions are right, BMW will definitely lead the way.
Keeping true to his words, BMW India has finally announced that it will officially debut the MINI brand in India. The company is also formalizing plans to showcase the MINI at Delhi Auto Expo 2012. According to a report in TheEconomicTimes, BMW will bring all the variants of the MINI including Cooper, Countryman (pictured) and the Cabrio to India.
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Motorbeam is reporting BMW will sell Mini Countryman and Cooper models in India next year. BMW has been studying India for its Mini brand for the last couple of years and has been postponing it due to unfavorable market conditions.
Mini will retail these two-door products through exclusive showrooms and isn’t interested in sharing space with BMW cars. The cars will be assembled at the company’s factory in Chennai. The expected starting price for a Mini is expected to touch 15 lakh rupees. For that money, a 180bhp 1.6-liter engine will be offered. Not so bad, then.
The BMW Group will be the world’s first manufacturer of premium automobiles to deploy a fleet of some 500 all-electric vehicles for private use in daily traffic. The MINI E will be powered by a 150 kW (204 hp) electric motor fed by a high-performance rechargeable lithium-ion battery, transferring its power to the front wheels via a single-stage helical gearbox nearly without a sound and entirely free of emissions.
Electric cars seem to be the future and although one might argue that their carbon footprint is almost the same as a normal IC engined car, use of alternate and renewable energy will surely put all the drawbacks to rest. We had the Chevrolet Volt and now BMW has just unveiled the Mini Cooper electric. So how is it like? Lets find out. This is the new Mini E, a [ Read More ]
