By Aditi Shah

MUMBAI, Jan 8 (Reuters) - BMW will launch 10 new cars in India this year, including EVs and its popular MINI brand, while boosting local sourcing to lower costs as luxury car sales in the country remain stubbornly small, its India CEO told Reuters.

Still, the German carmaker sold a record 18,000 cars in India in 2025, growing 14% from a year ago, and closing the gap with rival and market leader Mercedes-Benz.

BMW expects to maintain the same growth momentum this year with 10 new launches and 17 product upgrades, Hardeep Brar said in an interview in Mumbai, adding that over one-third of these will be under the MINI brand.

LUXURY CARS MAKE UP JUST 1% OF TOTAL INDIA CAR SALES

India is a fast-growing luxury car market, but such premium models only make up 1% of total car sales of over 4 million, mainly because of high import tax which makes the pricing steep.

"The luxury market overall is not growing. If we just keep fighting within this 1% we're not really expanding," said Brar.

To address this, he plans to launch more models and cut manufacturing costs with locally sourced alternatives to imported parts.

BMW currently sources about 50% of parts locally - including seats, engines, axles and tyres - for cars assembled in India, and Brar is working on increasing this, though he didn't elaborate.

Last year, BMW started locally assembly of its iX1 EV in India - its first such attempt for an electric model - which allowed it to price the car competitively against gasoline models and boosted clean car sales by 200%.

EVs MAKE UP A FIFTH OF BMW INDIA SALES

EVs now make up 21% of BMW's India sales, up from about 8% in 2024, spurring the company to evaluate sourcing EV components like motors locally, potentially further lowering their cost. Brar said the discussions were at an early stage.

Still, to ensure that growth in EVs continues and luxury carmakers invest in expanding their clean car portfolio, the government must maintain the current tax rate of 5%, against 40% and above for gasoline cars, he said.

"Overall EV penetration in India is about 4% but for luxury it is 10%. Hence we need this long term strategy from the government, wherein the lower tax is maintained for a certain period of time till EVs can sustain on their own," said Brar.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Bernadette Baum)