02-20-2005, 09:49 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BMW scouts for India plant to drive Asia sales</b>
SINGAPORE - German luxury car maker BMW may build a car plant in India, a market it views as undeveloped, to help it hit an Asian sales target of 150,000 cars within three years, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
The Munich-based firm, battling DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz to be the world's top maker of premium cars, <b>forecast group sales in Asia to grow 10-15 percent this year</b>.
<b>BMW, whose stable also includes the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said it sold 95,500 cars in Asia last year, around 8 percent of its total sales</b>. It aims to raise that to 150,000 by 2008, BMW Chief Executive Helmut Panke said.
Panke, speaking to reporters on a two-day trip to Singapore, said a BMW team of experts was in India to scout for possible locations for car production. <b>BMW sold only 122 imported cars in India last year from outlets in Bangalore, New Dehli and Bombay.</b>
"There's no decision yet and we have no specific time frame. Perhaps we'll enter a joint venture similar to the one in China," Panke said.
He insisted that <b>China, BMW's second-biggest market in Asia by sales after Japan</b>, would see above average long-term growth and dismissed last year's 15 percent drop in mainland group sales as a one-off.
"We will grow in China (in 2005 from 2004)," he said, adding it was "not important if it's 5 or 6 or 8 percent" sales growth.
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SINGAPORE - German luxury car maker BMW may build a car plant in India, a market it views as undeveloped, to help it hit an Asian sales target of 150,000 cars within three years, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
The Munich-based firm, battling DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz to be the world's top maker of premium cars, <b>forecast group sales in Asia to grow 10-15 percent this year</b>.
<b>BMW, whose stable also includes the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said it sold 95,500 cars in Asia last year, around 8 percent of its total sales</b>. It aims to raise that to 150,000 by 2008, BMW Chief Executive Helmut Panke said.
Panke, speaking to reporters on a two-day trip to Singapore, said a BMW team of experts was in India to scout for possible locations for car production. <b>BMW sold only 122 imported cars in India last year from outlets in Bangalore, New Dehli and Bombay.</b>
"There's no decision yet and we have no specific time frame. Perhaps we'll enter a joint venture similar to the one in China," Panke said.
He insisted that <b>China, BMW's second-biggest market in Asia by sales after Japan</b>, would see above average long-term growth and dismissed last year's 15 percent drop in mainland group sales as a one-off.
"We will grow in China (in 2005 from 2004)," he said, adding it was "not important if it's 5 or 6 or 8 percent" sales growth.
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