BMW China Sales Drop 10%; Plans 20 New Models by 2026 to Counter Slump

In the first quarter of 2024, BMW delivered a total of 144,000 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-over-year decline of 10%, representing a drop of over 10,000 units compared to the same period last year. Compared to its historical sales peak in China, BMW’s deliveries have decreased by 80,000 units, and its share of global sales has fallen from 33.5% to 25.5%. The sales decline is primarily attributed to intense price competition and heightened rivalry from domestic brands in China, compounded by the slow pace of its electrification transition—its fully electric models accounted for only 6.6% of total sales. To address these challenges, BMW plans to launch approximately 20 new models by 2026, including the next-generation BMW iX3 and i3 long-wheelbase variants specifically tailored for the Chinese market. BMW has granted product definition authority to its local Chinese team, and the new models will be deeply integrated with Huawei’s HarmonyOS ecosystem and powered by a language model developed with DeepSeek. Additionally, BMW is collaborating with Momenta to develop an L2+ full-scenario navigation-assisted driving system, which is expected to be deployed across multiple models by the end of 2027.