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A swanky BMW Individual 740Li M Sport Edition became the 1,00,000th ‘Made-in-India’ unit to roll out from the company's manufacturing facility in Chennai recently. Operations at the BMW Group Plant Chennai started operations on 29 March 2007 and the company is celebrating the facility's 15th anniversary this year. Over the years, the BMW has turned to locally-manufacturing a number of its popular models in the country.
At present, BMW manufactures 13 models at its Chennai facility and the list includes BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe, 3 Series, 3 Series Gran Limousine, M340i, 5 Series, 6 Series Gran Turismo, 7 Series, X1 to X7, among others. Additionally, the company especially highlights that the plant runs on 100% green electricity.
Home to around 650 employees, the BMW facility ensures timely delivery of products while also making the luxury vehicles more affordable than if these had to be imported. “This accomplishment (one lakh locally-made units) is a result of the team’s hard work, efficiency and consistency which ensures that every BMW or MINI car locally produced here in Chennai is of the same international quality standards as any other BMW plant across the world," says Thomas Dose, Managing Director, BMW Group Plant Chennai. “Highly skilled employees, advanced manufacturing processes along with state-of-the-art technology and a strong focus on sustainability provided the necessary ingredients for this success. At the same time, increased localisation of up to 50 per cent and a robust collaboration with local supplier partners has created more value for everyone in the ecosystem."
Luxury car makers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, among others, have increasingly turned to local manufacturing to make their respective products more attractive from a price point to potential customers.