The sales of premium segment cars, priced above Rs.25 lakh are expected to touch one lakh per year by 2020, Frank Schloeder, Director, Marketing, BMW India, said today.

With premium segment sales in India touching hardly between one to one and half per cent of total car sales, i.e., 30,000 to 35,000 per year at present, would scale up to one lakh in another five years, as purchasing power of Indian population was increasing year on year, he said.

Schloeder was here to showcase the entire BMW India product portfolio, as part of “The Experience Tour”, which covered 18 cities before, with Coimbatore being the final city.

On the new launch, he said that the company had planned to launch the new version of BMW 7 series and Small SUV in the first quarter of 2016, which would be displayed at the Auto Show to be held in Delhi in February.

On other segments, the official said that the company had launched BMW i18 this year in India, which was a plug-in-hybrid sports car, both electric and petrol-operated and available across the BMW outlets in the country.

Not willing to divulge details of number of vehicles or growth in India, Schloeder said that BMW India was achieving “good growth” in the country and BMW Group had invested Rs.4.9 million so far in it, with a manufacturing plant in Chennai, a parts warehouse in Mumbai and a training Centre in Gurgaon.

The Chennai plant, which became operational in 2007, was producing all the eight models of BMW for domestic market and as part of Make In India, nearly 50 per cent of components were indigenised ones.

On the experience tour, Schloeder said that over 7,500 BMW customers and enthusiasts in 18 cities had participated in this tour, during whichthey had given the experience of test driving and interacting with product experts.