The huge demand for the BMW luxury cars in India has made the German auto maker to increase its sales target by 40 per cent to 2,800 units for the calendar year 2008. Among these 2,200 cars will be launched from the company's assembly plant near Chennai. The remaining 600 will be imported from the auto maker's global head quarters at Munich.

However BMW accomplish its sales target as it would grow in excess of last year's sales by 102 %. BMW's confidence comes at a time when the passenger car market in India is perturbing about ending up with a single digit growth in the financial year 2008-09.

BMW evaluates against its own strict standards and considers that it has done better than expected in India. The company achieved sales target of 1,000 cars for the year 2007. But this year BMW India has closed with sales of 1,387 luxury vehicles.

According to David Panton, senior vice-president, Asia-Pacific and president, South Africa, "This is no small revision for a company like BMW", which prices its cars between Rs 27, 00,000 (320i model) and Rs 1.31 crore (M6 convertible).

BMW’s assembly plant at Mahindra World City, near Chennai can squash 3,000 cars a year. David Panton also added that, “This capacity should be enough for our sales target in 2008 and 2009. In any case the 3,000 cars-a-year capacity will be on a single shift basis."

BMW's upward revision of target has taken place due to the fluctuating Indian car market structure. The domestic passenger vehicle market had a growth of 12% after closing 2007-08. But now the company is planning to increase its price due to rise input costs and fuel costs.