With increasing demand of the British premium brand, the BMW Group has just announced the commencement of MINI’s local operations in India, which will see local production of the MINI Countryman at the BMW’s Chennai plant. For the first time in MINI’s global history, cars from the British automaker will roll off an assembly line outside of Europe. According to the company, the demand for the MINI brand has been overwhelming and in order to meet the steadily increasing demand, the automaker has come up with a assembly facility in India for the MINI.
The locally assembled MINI Countryman will be available in two new diesel variants for the first time in India namely MINI Cooper D Countryman and MINI Cooper D Countryman High. Apart from the diesel offerings, MINI has also come up with a new petrol variant of the MINI One Countryman, which will also be produced at BMW’s plant in Chennai. The MINI One Countryman will be the lowest priced MINI car in the automaker’s product portfolio in India. Other models such as the MINI Cooper, Cooper S, Cooper Convertible and Cooper S Countryman from the Mini stable apart from the latest offerings will continue to be imported in India via the Completely Built Units (CBU) route.
The MINI One Countryman retails at the lowest price of Rs. 23,50,000/-, MINI Cooper D Countryman comes with a price tag of Rs. 25,60,000/- while the Mini Cooper D Countryman High will cost Rs. 28,90,000/- (all prices ex-showroom, India). India is the hundredth market for MINI’s global sales and it is a crucial market for the company, which is on a verge to expand its presence extensively.
MINI has established five exclusive outlets across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The BMW Chennai plant currently assembles the 3-Series, 5-Series, X1 and the X3. By the end of the year, the plant will also assemble the facelifted BMW 7-Series and the BMW 1-Series. With the introduction of locally produced MINI Countryman, the automaker expects significant growth over the medium and long term.
