BMW Chennai plant to roll out cars on March 29

German-based luxury carmaker, BMW will roll out its first three-series models from its Indian facility at Chennai on March 29, while the 5 Series will be rolled out in June.

The Chennai facility, set up at an investment of over Euro 20 million, has a capacity to produce 1,500-1,700 cars annually.

BMW aims to sell 1,000 cars in India this year as against 257 units sold last year.

Addressing the BMW annual account conference in Munich on Wednesday, BMW Group chairman Norbert Reithofer said, "We are commencing production in India later this month with an assembly unit that will produce around 1,500 units."

BMW Group's General Manager (Regional Marketing) for Asia Pacific, Christoph von Tschirschnitz told PTI, "We have set a target to touch the 1,500-units sales mark in 2007 with the launch of the Chennai plant later this month."

BMW India Private Ltd, the Indian subsidiary, has set up a sales and corporate office in Gurgaon, Haryana, which is being headed by Peter Kronschnabl.

BMW's Chennai plant will produce three series models to begin with, which is proposed to be launched by BMW Group's chairman Norbert Reithofer, along with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on March 29.

However, Indian customers looking forward to place orders for the BMW Mini models, which is a small car, will have to wait till 2009.