Reference Auto

Around August, Mercedes-Benz regained the top slot in luxury car sales in the country followed by BMW and Audi but BMW desperately wants to rev up to gain the number one slot again (till a few months back, Audi was number one and earlier it was BMW) and is set to bring in a sports sedan – the Z4 – which is slated to be rolled out in the middle of this month.

The BMW Z4 will be offered with insignificant changes compared to the current model of the successful two-seater sports sedan. The previous BMW Z4 is around five years old and the updated Z4 to be launched in India is expected to be just a spruced up version.

The Z4’s India version will be in the sDrive35is form but there is buzz that BMW will also launch the cheaper Z4 18i and Z4 20i variants to ramp up its market in the luxury sports car segment and also scale up its presence by seeing more buyers make a beeline for its sports cars.

The 35i will come with a 3.0 litre 6-cylinder twin-turbo engine belting out 340 PS and 400 NM torque. The Z4 18i has a 2.0 litre turbocharged petrol engine offering 156 PS and the Z4 20i offers a 2.0 litre turbocharged petrol engine with 183 bhp.

The new Z4 has a newly designed headlight, slightly refurbished bumper along with an option for a black roof and really doesn’t allow the layman car buff to distinguish between the new variant and the current one.

But BMW has made the Z4 a very attractive budget luxury car and many buffs may flock for it for its looks and of course the price (which is going to be around Rs 70 lakh).

Although there is the Mercedes-Benz SLK (at Rs 82 lakh), which is a better car in terms of performance but the Z4 is no pushover though and is a very strong contender so far as features go.

BMW is planning to spend Rs 390 crore for its Chennai plant for bringing in a new assembly line, in a bid to ramp up its capacity to 14,000 cars a year. With this move, BMW is going to have some advantage with regard to competition (Merc and Audi) and would locally assemble its six models (and may be, have price advantage).

The luxury carmaker sells 14 models in the country and was a market leader till last year but was overtaken first by Audi and then by Merc. BMW is now in the number two spot in the Indian market, ahead of Audi.

So, can BMW take pole position in the luxury car segment again from Mercedes-Benz with the launch of a cheaper version of luxury sports sedan, the Z4?