The BMW Group reported a sharp drop in second-quarter earnings, with pre-tax profit down 35 percent year-on-year to 1.7 billion euros. Finance chief Walter Mertl blamed a deepening downturn in China, fiercer competition from Chinese exports and the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East. Growth in Europe and the United States softened the blow but was not enough to offset the losses in Asia.

The BMW Group has confirmed a difficult second quarter of 2026, as a slumping Chinese market and rising competitive pressure weighed on both sales and profits. Presenting the figures for the period to 30 June, board member for finance Walter Mertl said the results reflected “the challenging market conditions the BMW Group is currently facing.”

Group revenues came in at 31.3 billion euros for the quarter and 62.3 billion euros for the first half. Group earnings before tax fell 35 percent year-on-year to 1.7 billion euros in the quarter, leaving a half-year figure of around 4 billion euros, down 29.4 percent. That equates to a Group pre-tax margin of 5.4 percent for the quarter and 6.5 percent for the half.

Europe and the US grow, China falls sharply

The group delivered around 591,000 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles in the second quarter, 4.9 percent fewer than a year earlier. BMW-brand deliveries slipped 7.7 percent to about 509,000 cars, while MINI rose 17.1 percent on strong demand for its electric models.

Regional performance was uneven. According to the company, retail sales rose 7.6 percent in Europe and 11.9 percent in the US, where the BMW brand again outpaced the wider market. China told the opposite story: group retail sales there dropped 30.2 percent in the quarter and 20.4 percent over the half-year, broadly in line with an overall market decline of about 20 percent. Deliveries in the combined Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region fell 10.9 percent.

Electric sales keep climbing in Europe

BMW delivered around 117,000 all-electric vehicles worldwide in the quarter, or roughly 163,000 including plug-in hybrids. That puts the fully electric share at 19.8 percent of group deliveries and the electrified share at 27.6 percent. Europe remains the engine of EV growth: helped by the launch of the new BMW iX3, battery-electric sales there rose 38 percent to more than 81,000 units, meaning almost one in three cars sold in the region was fully electric. Mertl said this supports the group’s expectation of again meeting its EU CO2 targets in 2026.

Automotive margins squeezed

Automotive segment revenue fell 7.7 percent to 27.2 billion euros. Segment EBIT was 629 million euros in the quarter, a reported margin of 2.3 percent that included a 1.25-point burden from higher tariffs and a 1.2-point hit from BBA purchase-price depreciation. Currency effects cost around 400 million euros. Free cash flow in the segment was about 500 million euros for the quarter and 1.3 billion for the half, with the group still targeting more than 2.5 billion euros for the full year.

The Financial Services segment earned around 1 billion euros in the half, down 15.4 percent, largely due to a UK consumer-compensation provision. The Motorcycles segment posted EBIT of 141 million euros at a 15.2 percent margin despite deliveries easing 1.9 percent.

What it means

The results underline how exposed premium makers remain to China, where price competition and weak demand continue to bite. BMW says it is responding with tighter control of costs, R&D and capital spending, having cut capex by more than 30 percent in the half. It also brought forward the final tranche of its 2 billion-euro share buyback, now due to finish by 30 November, five months early.

The group confirmed its June guidance: a significant fall in full-year pre-tax profit, an automotive EBIT margin of 1 to 3 percent, a motorcycles margin of 4 to 6 percent and a financial-services return on equity of 13 to 16 percent.

Facts: BMW Group Q2 2026

  • Group revenue: 31.3 billion euros (Q2), 62.3 billion euros (H1)
  • Group EBT: 1.7 billion euros (Q2), down 35 percent
  • Group EBT margin: 5.4 percent (Q2), 6.5 percent (H1)
  • Deliveries: ~591,000 vehicles (Q2), down 4.9 percent
  • BEV deliveries: ~117,000 (Q2); BEV share 19.8 percent
  • Automotive EBIT margin: 2.3 percent (Q2), 3.6 percent (H1)
  • Full-year guidance: automotive EBIT margin 1–3 percent

Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com