Car industry BMW earns less - but more than VW and Mercedes
In the last quarter under CEO Oliver Zipse, BMW once again suffered a drop in profits. On balance, BMW earned just under 1.67 billion euros from January to March, as the company announced on Wednesday. This is around 23 percent less than a year ago.
06.05.2026, 07:42
SDA
However, the comparison with the same quarter last year is not entirely fair. At that time, the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump did not yet apply. They will continue to affect BMW in the current financial year, the Group expects - albeit slightly less than in 2025 as a whole.
Sales also shrank - by 8.1 percent to 31 billion euros - partly due to currency effects and because sales fell by 3.5 percent to 565,780 cars. The weakness in China, from which all German manufacturers are currently suffering, made itself felt here. Good business in Europe could not compensate for this. On a positive note, however, BMW is currently seeing very strong orders in Europe.
Record order intake in Europe
"Never before have we achieved so many incoming orders in Europe as in the first three months of the year," says Group CEO Zipse, emphasizing that the right decision was made with the introduction of the New Class. Overall, he believes the company is "in the right position to be successful in the long term, even under challenging conditions".
In view of current developments, BMW nevertheless intends to make savings - albeit without announcing any major cost-cutting programs. "In a challenging economic environment, we are always looking at costs," says CFO Walter Mertl. "We are working on various levers within the company and our cost management is aimed at achieving a sustainable effect."
End of a term of office
Zipse will remain CEO until the BMW Annual General Meeting on May 13. His designated successor Milan Nedeljkovic will take over on May 14. Until now, he has been Board Member for Production, a position Zipse also held before his rise to the top of the company. He is taking over a robust company in difficult waters.
It was a challenging term of office for Zipse: it included coronavirus, the chip crisis, the war in Ukraine, price wars in China and US tariffs, but also the company's all-time record profit and the development of the New Class as an important leap forward in electromobility.
In the end, BMW was unable to escape the general negative pull in the industry, but can take credit for the fact that BMW is currently in the best position in a domestic comparison. As in the full year 2025, the Munich-based company was also able to generate higher profits in the first quarter than arch-rival Mercedes and the much larger VW Group. The Swabians posted a bottom line of 1.43 billion euros from January to March, while the Wolfsburg-based company made 1.56 billion euros.
