BMW considering local assembling of Mini Convertible

German luxury car-maker BMW may consider assembling the Mini Convertible in India, if the car touches mass numbers in the country. BMW, which launched the all-new Mini Convertible in India March 16, hopes to increase the sales of the Mini models in India in the coming months.

Mini India, which currently has four showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, will open the fifth showroom in Chennai soon.

"We can look at local assembly here, when we reach a critical mass in sales volume. That can happen some years down the line," the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted BMW Group India President Philipp von Sahr as saying.

The Mini, the premium small car brand of BMW, entered into the Indian market in 2012 and has been clocking sales of around 400 units since then. The company would consider the local assembly of the Mini Convertible if the numbers touch thousands.

The Mini Cooper Convertible is currently brought to India as CBU (Completely-Built Unit). It is powered by a 2-litre four-cylinder Twin-Power Turbo engine that is tuned to churn out 189bhp of power and 280Nm of torque. The engine comes paired to a 6-speed automatic transmission and the car can accelerate from 0 to100 kmph in 7.1 seconds before reaching a top speed of 233 kmph. The new version of Mini Convertible has been priced at Rs. 34.9 lakh (ex-showroom) and the prices may go up from April 1.

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]