BMW’s small but growing electric vehicle (EV) portfolio has found reasonable success in India. While overall numbers in this new and fast-evolving segment are still low, BMW leads the luxury EV market in the country by a fair margin. Interestingly – and perhaps contrary to general perception – it is not the competitively-priced i4 sedan that is leading BMW’s EV growth story. Instead, it is the iX electric SUV that has emerged as the best-selling battery-powered model for the German carmaker in India.
Launched at the end of 2021, the BMW iX is one of three BMW-badged EVs on sale in India at present. Including the Mini Cooper SE, BMW Group India has a total of four battery-powered vehicles available here. The company has stopped short of divulging exact sales figures for its EV portfolio, but confirmed that its domestic EV sales in just the first six months are 46 per cent higher than in the entirety of 2022.
A total of 527 BMW Group EVs have been sold across India in 2023, as per the latest vehicle registration data on the VAHAN portal. This figure is more than twice the registrations of the next closest luxury EV player, Volvo (252 units). Sales of the iX are well into triple digits, carandbike understands.
BMW Group India President Vikram Pawah told carandbike that the iX has been the single biggest contributor to the brand’s EV volumes, highlighting the reasons for its success.
“The clear success factor [in the EV lineup] has been the iX. It’s the biggest-selling electric vehicle in our portfolio, and the iX alone outsells all the models included in the premium space. I’m not surprised because it’s an SUV, so it’s perfect for our conditions, perfect from the space point of view and the technology that comes with it. You can enjoy that car with a low cost of ownership, without any hassles” Pawah said during an interaction with carandbike.
So popular is the iX among buyers in India, that demand for it is, at times, “almost equivalent” to demand for the combustion engine BMW X5 SUV, Pawah added. Customers, too, feel confident in the availability of charging infrastructure, according to Pawah, with the company currently having 62 DC fast-charging stations operational across its dealerships in 35 cities.
At Rs 1.21 crore (base price, ex-showroom), the iX is considerably pricier than the i4 sedan (Rs 73.90 lakh), but sits below the i7 sedan (Rs 1.95 crore). It packs a 76.6 kWh lithium-ion battery, and has a range of up to 425 kilometres (WLTP cycle).
Today, the leader of the luxury passenger car market in India, Mercedes-Benz, does not have a direct rival to the iX, with the EQC phased out long ago. The iX’s closest competition includes the ageing Jaguar I-Pace, and the Audi e-tron. However, competition is set to intensify in the coming months, as Mercedes-Benz gears up to introduce the EQE and EQS electric SUVs, and Audi’s upgraded Q8 e-tron is just around the corner.
