The newly launched Mercedes A Class will soon find company in the premium hatchback of Indian car market. Mr. Philipp Von Sahr, the president of BMW India, recently confirmed that the BMW 1 Series India launch date lies in this September. In line with this announcement, the 1 series hatchback was recently spotted on Indian roads by the good folks at Autocar India.
The upcoming BMW 1 Series hatchback will come to us via Completely Knocked Down (CKD) route and as is obvious, will be assembled at BMW India’s Chennai facility.
In almost every car market it is sold in, the BMW 1 Series hatchback is available with a range of engines displacing anywhere between 1.6 litres to 3.0 litres for the petrol variants and 1.6 litres to 2.0 litres for diesel variants. It isn’t yet known for sure about the engine variants that would make it to us but our believe is that BMW India would not launch petrol variant and would stick to a single diesel variant that could be powered by X1′s motor.
In India, the BMW 1 Series will lock horns with the Mercedes A Class and the recently launched Volvo V40 Cross Country.
It may be noted that both BMW and Audi outsell Mercedes in Indian car market. While Mercedes India, the Indian subsidiary of the popular German luxury car maker, has planned to launch a range of new cars in India in a bid to regain its lost territory from the other two German premium car makers, it remains to be seen if Mercedes India would be able to get the better of the remaining two of the German trio. With the recent disclosure by BMW India, it has become for sure that the A Class will have to battle it out against the BMW 1 Series soon after its launch in India. However, Audi India hasn’t yet confirmed any plans to bring in the Audi A3 hatchback. Instead, what might come our way could be the sedan derivative of the A3.
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