The luxury small car, MINI from BMW, will not hit the Indian road in 2009 as expected and will be postponed to after 2010. BMW India Private Ltd has altered the plans to introduce the MINI and the reasons quoted were due to non-viable market .
BMW India president Peter Kronschnabl said, “We have postponed plans to launch the MINI in India in 2009. This is based on a feasibility study we conducted for different MINI models. We feel that it is not viable to launch the car in 2009 with such high import duties (around 113% on cars). The brand has immense value, but the market potential in not as per our expectations. We are not sure of consistent sales.”
“The company has not cancelled plans for MINI but looking at a more mature market at the moment,” said Mr Kronschnabl.