BMW's Chennai plant has assembled its 50,000th car – a 7 Series.
The KD assembly plant started operations on 29 March 2007 and BMW has continuously increased the number of its locally produced car models. The 1 Series, the 3 Series, the 3 Series Gran Turismo, the 5 Series, 7 Series, X1, X3 and X5 are all now built at Chennai.
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Celebrating the Make in India government initiative, BMW has further strengthened its commitment to India by increasing the level of localisation to 50%.
Like most car plants, the BMW factory has attracted suppliers.
Last September, ZF Hero Chassis Systems opened a factory in Oragadam, Chennai to assemble front and rear axle modules for the nearby car assembly plant. The supplier located ZF engineers at the 75,000sq ft plant "in order to specifically meet the requirements of its customers".
BMW Plant Chennai MD Robert Frittrang said at the time: "ZF Hero Chassis Systems has established itself as a leader in automotive components. The cars rolling out of [our factory] now have axles supplied by ZF Hero Chassis Systems. Our partnership is off to a successful start and we are confident that through our partnership, we will continue to deliver best-in-class premium products in the Indian market."
