EV demand rises over fuel price hike concern due to West Asia war: BMW Gr India President & CEO

New Delhi: The war in West Asia is aiding demand for luxury electric vehicles driven by concerns over fuel prices among customers, BMW Group India President and CEO Hardeep Singh Brar said on Wednesday.

The German luxury carmaker has increased its EV sales in India to 26 per cent of its overall sales in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to 21 per cent in the year-ago period, Brar told PTI.

BMW Group India posted its highest-ever Q1 car sales, with 4,567 units in the first quarter of 2026, at a growth of 17 per cent year-on-year.

Explaining the growth drivers, he said apart from new product launches, “because of the ongoing geopolitics and geo-economic issues which are going on globally, there was a lot of discussion on crude oil prices going up as a result of this, lot of sentiments in terms of fuel prices going up in India… So that brought in a lot of focus on electric vehicles”.

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He further said, “Fortunately for us, we have a very strong EV portfolio, which was doing well. The only thing we needed to do was to improve the supplies, to capitalise on the situation.”

The company had stored kits imported from Munich, which otherwise has a lead time of six months, in order to meet demand for EVs in India, Brar said, adding, “with the availability of the kits, we could quickly adjust our overall supply chain to bring in more production”.

“Hence, we could capitalise on the demand, which was very strong for the electric vehicles, as a result of which we grew by 83 per cent in electric vehicles and quarter one,” he said.

The company has a waiting period of almost one to two months, he added.

If there has been a slight structural shift towards EVs as a result of the impact on crude oil supplies due to the West Asia war, he said, “I think this will definitely have a positive impact on our customers. They are not going to forget this situation soon… and we expect EV demand to even get strengthened with this whole situation.”

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Citing data captured by the company through its dealers, Brar said, “In terms of inquiries, bookings and details, and also qualitatively, there’s a clear shift towards electric vehicles with the ongoing scenario.”

In the first quarter, the group sold 1,185 EVs across BMW and MINI brands, a growth of 83 per cent over the same period last fiscal year.

Every fourth car BMW Group India sells today is an EV, the company said.