BMW Group has finalised an “extensive workforce restructuring programme” as the company faces “significant downturn in the Chinese market” alongside a tougher operating landscape worldwide.
The German carmaker has yet to confirm the scale of the job cuts, although various media outlets have put the figure at up to 8,000.
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Just Auto has contacted BMW for comment on the restructuring.
BMW chairman of the board of management Milan Nedeljković said: “The automotive industry is faced with rapidly escalating challenges – intense global competition, increasing regional regulatory requirements and the implications of geopolitical conflicts will shape our business model in the years ahead. That’s why it’s important to be lean and agile.
“We are working to reshape our organisation and processes, thereby positioning the company to stay competitive going forward.”
The announcement came alongside BMW’s second quarter and first half (H1) results, which showed a sharp fall in earnings.
Group revenue for the first half declined 8% to €62.26bn ($71.28bn), against €67.68bn in H1 2025.
Second quarter revenue fell 7.9% to €31.25bn.
BMW’s group EBIT fell 38.7% year-on-year to €1.63bn in the second quarter and declined 37.4% to €3.64bn in the first half.
In the second quarter, net profit fell 34.9% to €1.20bn. For the first half, net profit dropped to €2.87bn from €4.01bn a year earlier.
Within the automotive segment, the EBIT margin for the second quarter stood at 2.3%, compared with 5.4% a year earlier.
Worldwide deliveries across the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands totalled 1.15 million vehicles in H1 2026, a fall of 4.2% from 1.20 million units in H1 2025.
Europe and the US both recorded delivery growth over the half, up 5.4% and 3.9% respectively, with the pace picking up in the second quarter – Europe rising 7.6% and the US 11.9%.
China told a different story, with deliveries down 20.4% to 261,773 units across H1 and falling 30.2% to 117,815 units in the second quarter.
Spending on research and development eased 7.6% to €3.71bn, and capital expenditure was cut by 30.5% to €1.90bn.
BMW has reaffirmed its outlook for the 2026 financial year, anticipating a slight fall in automotive segment deliveries, an EBIT margin of between 1% and 3% for the segment, and a marked decrease in group pre-tax earnings.
The company also expects automotive segment return on capital employed of between 1% and 5%, alongside full-year free cash flow exceeding €2.5bn in the automotive segment.
