BMW sales in Q2 '26 down by 5%; driven by 30% drop in sales in China; 8K jobs cut

This has been reported by Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, July 29 2026.

BMW will eliminate 8,000 jobs via a voluntary severance program.

The buyout offer will be extended to staff in research, development, planning and other corporate functions. Factory workers will not be eligible.

Why is this important?

- BMW will continue and perhaps expand aggressive cost cutting programs
- Exterior, interior, and option packages choices will decline
- Neueu Klasse (regardless of consumer feedback) design language will be here for a longer period of time

To contrast:

- Porsche is cutting another 5,000 jobs (plus 3,900 last year)
- VW is looking to eliminate 50,000 white collar jobs; no agreement with the unions yet

50K for VW, good lord that premature shift to BEV's has derailed them.

cfm56d7b wrote

This has been reported by Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, July 29 2026.

BMW will eliminate 8,000 jobs via a voluntary severance program.

The buyout offer will be extended to staff in research, development, planning and other corporate functions. Factory workers will not be eligible.

Why is this important?

- BMW will continue and perhaps expand aggressive cost cutting programs
- Exterior, interior, and option packages choices will decline
- Neueu Klasse (regardless of consumer feedback) design language will be here for a longer period of time

To contrast:

- Porsche is cutting another 5,000 jobs (plus 3,900 last year)
- VW is looking to eliminate 50,000 white collar jobs; no agreement with the unions yet

I think the hard shift to BEVs was catastrophic to most automakers especially the white collar design and marketing staff. I do think the emphasis on AI for navigation and self driving will keep the engineers and production staff busy. If I worked at BMW I would much rather get a paid buyout (sometimes romanticized as a golden parachute) than I would a layoff notice. Applying for unemployment stinks.

BMW earnings releases used to warrant a front page post on this site, but not when the news is this bad. Demand problems in China and tariffs are both major culprits here. The nonsense tariffs couldnt have come at a worse time for German automakers.

WWM3 wrote

BMW earnings releases used to warrant a front page post on this site, but not when the news is this bad. Demand problems in China and tariffs are both major culprits here. The nonsense tariffs couldnt have come at a worse time for German automakers.

Agreed on tariffs and China - but hasnt the lack of EV/BEV enthusiasm also played a role here? Porsche fell for it too. The big "switcheroo" over to Battery-powered, high-end vehicles & enthusiast cars. Whoopsie.

Not so fast. Im hoping the German car makers have realized that the China basket is not worth putting too many eggs into anymore. They all got fat & happy off that craze for a while but it was clearly just a blip.

The reality is that BMW needs to concentrate as much or more on the USA and where ever else. Make exciting, premium products that your customers want. Yes, that means plenty of petrol options. Tech must work properly and be relatively easy to use. Treat customers right. We'll keep buying.

Germany also hurt hard by insane electricity plus petrol and nat gas prices. They never should have shut down nuke and coal power plants. This green dreams and zero carbon/Co2 fantasy seems to me a non-issue with the push for gigantic datacenters and AI, which is a scam. Diesel was a dirty word unless you want datacenters with gigantic diesel power generators running 24x7. Rows and rows of them.

Germany and western Europe benefitted from cheap and reliable natural gas from Russia for 30+ years. I am not pimping for Russia but this is the reality. If you do not have affordable energy, you become poor.

Schmee150 was on a talk show on the web or roundtable. He said the politicians who pushed for EV severely hurt European and other carmakers. He said tens of billions wasted which could have been used to make ICE engines even more efficient.

Finally, the China dream of huge business for European and American carmakers was delusional. Ask Japanese motorcycle companies that have and had their motorcycles totally copied in China. Now the younger Chinese prefer Chinese brands. The only bright spot is Electric Viking on YT posted a video saying all but one Chinese EV car maker was losing money.

FrankL wrote

Germany also hurt hard by insane electricity plus petrol and nat gas prices. They never should have shut down nuke and coal power plants. This green dreams and zero carbon/Co2 fantasy seems to me a non-issue with the push for gigantic datacenters and AI, which is a scam. Diesel was a dirty word unless you want datacenters with gigantic diesel power generators running 24x7. Rows and rows of them.

Germany and western Europe benefitted from cheap and reliable natural gas from Russia for 30+ years. I am not pimping for Russia but this is the reality. If you do not have affordable energy, you become poor.

Schmee150 was on a talk show on the web or roundtable. He said the politicians who pushed for EV severely hurt European and other carmakers. He said tens of billions wasted which could have been used to make ICE engines even more efficient.

Finally, the China dream of huge business for European and American carmakers was delusional. Ask Japanese motorcycle companies that have and had their motorcycles totally copied in China. Now the younger Chinese prefer Chinese brands. The only bright spot is Electric Viking on YT posted a video saying all but one Chinese EV car maker was losing money.

While these facts are off topic, they are nevertheless eye-opening.

France generates 70% of electricity from 57 operating nuclear reactors located at 19 power plant sites.

France sells electricity to Germany and other EU countries.

France generates about 5 billion Euro from electricity sales.

https://carboncredits.com/nuclear-education-how-germany-lost-another-world-war-to-france/

Myopia is no longer limited to humans.

BMW should relocate to the US.

cfm56d7b wrote

While these facts are off topic, they are nevertheless eye-opening.

France generates 70% of electricity from 57 operating nuclear reactors located at 19 power plant sites.

France sells electricity to Germany and other EU countries.

France generates about 5 billion Euro from electricity sales.

https://carboncredits.com/nuclear-education-how-germany-lost-another-world-war-to-france/

Myopia is no longer limited to humans.

BMW should relocate to the US.

Yeah they should relocate here, .

Really though, heavy-handed mandates and all that crap dont help this stuff either. But lets not get off topic.

BMW will sort it and be fine.

The summary, staying on topic, is that it's a global economy and micro decisions within a particular country have macro impact upon any company.