Thursday, June 9, 2011

BMW India sees competition from JLR

PANAJI: The introduction of Tata Motors- owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) models in India will certainly provide competition to BMW in the luxury car space, including its X3 SUV, which is planned to be launched in September, a top executive of the German auto major said today.

"It would be wrong if I say it's not a competition. It's certainly a competition," BMW India President Andreas Schaaf told reporters near here when asked about JLR's presence in the Indian market.

When quizzed further on competition from the British marquee, which Tata Motors acquired in 2008, Schaaf, who commissioned BMW's Goa facility near here today, said he would not like to comment much on the issue.

Schaaf disagreed with suggestion Tata Motor has a better dealer network compared to BMW in India. "I would not agree with your statement that they (Tata Motors) have a better network."

Tata Motors is aggressively pushing JLR models in India, which is expected to heat up competition among the luxury vehicle market players like BMW, Daimler and Audi .

"Tata Motors has a strong brand in India, including in passenger and commercial vehicles segments, and this will help the auto giant to take JLR forward," PwC India Leader (Automotive Practice) Abdul Majeed had told PTI recently.

"Assembling the British marquee in India will give an advantage to Tata Motors to compete with other luxury car rivals. JLR will have more demand in the market compared to other brands," Majeed had said.

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