Moscow - Despite the sales slump on the Russian car market, German luxury carmaker BMW plans to expand its production in the country with two new off-road models, a top executive said Wednesday. Christian Kremer, head of the BMW Group Russia, told Russian state television that production of the X5 and X6 models would be starting up July 8 at the Avtotor plant in Kaliningrad.
With this move, the Russian-built share of BMW model cars sold in Russia would be increased to 50 per cent, from the current one-third, he said.
Munich-based BMW also has plans to boost the number of dealerships in Russia to 60, from the current 50.
Till now, BMW has only produced its 3-series and 5-series cars and its X3 off-road vehicle at the Kaliningrad plant.
BMW said that it has so far felt comparatively little effect from the drastic drop in sales on the Russian car market. Whereas sales overall dropped some 50 per cent in the January-May period in Russia, BMW's sales slipped by 7 per cent to 6,639 cars.
BMW is boosting its production inside Russia in order to circumvent the country's high import duties and to take advantage of cheaper labour costs.
