BMW, the world’s largest premium carmakers, has launched the new BMW M3 coupe in Chennai.The BMW also opened its first showroom, KUN, in the city.

First of the M series from BMW, M3 coupe is a two-door luxury car with a 3999cc V8 petrol engine. These luxury sport vehicles are priced from Rs75 lakh to upwards of Rs1 crore.

“BMW started in India in the year 2007 in March with our production house in Chennai, the hometown of BMW here in India. And we sold last year to our customers 1,387 cars. Last year’s luxury segment sale was at about 4,300 cars, so our market share or segment share was about 30 per cent last year,” said Peter Kronschnabl, president of BMW, India.

“This year in 2008, we believe that we can sell about 2000 cars to the customers. Mid term we would like to become the segment leader in the luxury segment. We believe that the luxury segment will grow till 2010 to about 10000 cars per year,” he added.

BMW’s plant in Chennai is the group’s fifth factory in Asia and will make 3 and 5 series BMWs exclusively for the Indian market.The Munich-based company is stuck to its goal of selling 150,000 cars in Asia, after sales in the region climbed 13.8 percent in 2006 to a record 126,949 vehicles.