BMW rolls out high-performance X5M, X6M at Rs 1.5 cr onwards

German car major BMW, which today unveiled two new ultra-high performance sports cars from the M series -- the BMW X5M and X6M -- said it will open six more super luxury sales outlets under the M Studio label next year.
The launch is primarily aimed at cashing in on the booming performance car segment in the country.
The all-new X5M, sporting a 4.4-litre 8-speed petrol engine, comes at Rs 1.5 crore while the X6M with the same engine specifications costs Rs 1.6 crore, all ex-showroom, India, as these are imported from its Munich plant.
Though these new cars have no direct competition in the domestic market, they will be pitched against Mercedes G 63 AMG, which though is a much higher model (priced at over Rs 2.3 crore) than the BMW ones.

The M series is the performance vehicles range of BMW which mostly sells these models through special outlets called M Studios.
The company has just one such outlet in the country now in Mumbai and it will be adding six more M Studios in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, among others, in 2016, Philipp von Sahr, BMW Group India President, said here today.

Launching these two super premium sports cars at the Madras Motor Sports Club here, Sahr said these performance cars are available for booking from today.
With these two new launches, the luxury carmaker has so far launched 14 models in the country this year. It will be launching one more before December, Sahr said.

It had lost the number 1 tag to Audi in 2012. The 33,000 units a year luxury car market in the country is dominated by three German companies - Mercedes, Audi and BMW, which along with the Tatas-owned British luxury brand JLR collectively control over 98 per cent of the market.
While Merc took the top spot in FY15 with over 11,000 units, Audi came in at a close second. BMW was a distant third.
In January-September, Merc sold 10,079 units, up 34 per cent over the same period last year, while Audi and BMW numbers are not available.
The X5M and X6M combine the qualities of the 4W drive BMW xDrive range and the performance of the M range, which is inspired by motorsports.

In other words, the X-M range constitutes the new high performance range globally for the 99-year-old BMW group.