Get Ready For the War! BMW to Introduce 1-Series in India to Take on A-Class

As we published exclusive spyshots of Mercedes A-Class on Indian roads, there is a new story building up at rival BMW’s office. The German luxury car maker BMW still holds the No. 1 position of luxury car market in India. The company revealed yesterday at 6 series Gran Coupe launch yesterday that it will bring the 1 Series hatch in India by late next year.

This 1-Series is the smallest and cheapest car in BMW’s line-up. The 1-Series is 4.2 Meters long and shares multiple components with the 3-Series. So, this hatch will be locally produced at the BMW plant in Chennai.

The 1-Series is supposed to compete with entry level German luxury cars like the Mercedes Benz A-Class and Audi A1. We have limited information about the launch of Audi A1 in India but we have recently caught the A-Class testing in Pune and launch is expected sometime next year.

The A-Class is expected to be priced around the 18 Lakh band. But BMW India’s head, Mr. Philipp Von Sahr revealed that BMW will not joint he price war by cutting the prices of the cars or by providing discounts! Now that leaves us with confusion!

bmw-1-series114d

But we still expect the 1-Series to be priced under Rs. 20 Lakhs considering the price of the current cheapest X1 crossover. The current 1-Series generation is internationally on sale since September 2011. A couple of months back, the company had introduced a new member to the 1-Series line-up, called the 114d. The 114d was supposed to be the entry level hatch of the 1-Series line-up and is powered by a 1.6-Litre TwinPower Turbocharged Diesel Engine that delivers 95 HP of power at 4,000 RPM and 235 Nm of torque between 1,500 and 2,750 RPM with an impressive fuel average of 4.1 to 4.3 Liters per 100 kilometres!

But due to cost factor,  in India we expect the 1-Series to powered by X1’s 181 BHP 2.0-Liter Diesel Engine and 150 BHP 2.0-Liter Petrol Engine. Or possibly an omission of the petrol engine altogether could also be expected.

 

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Arghya Pan

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