BMW Global Deliveries Drop 5% in Q2, China Sales Plunge 30%

BMW Group delivered 590,962 vehicles globally in the second quarter of 2024, a 4.9% year-over-year decline. Deliveries in China plummeted by 30.2% year-over-year, becoming the primary drag on overall performance. In contrast, deliveries in the U.S. market rose by 11.9%, while those in Europe (excluding Germany) increased by 7.6%. Under mounting earnings pressure, BMW CEO Milan Nedeljković has announced intensified cost-cutting measures and revised the group’s full-year profit outlook for 2026 downward last month. According to the latest forecast, BMW could become one of the least profitable mainstream automakers in Europe. In its electrification strategy, BMW employs a flexible multi-powertrain production approach, enabling a single assembly line to accommodate vehicles with different powertrains—helping the company navigate uncertainties stemming from fluctuating EV demand and shifting U.S. tariff policies. The company has invested over €10 billion in developing its Neue Klasse platform and plans to launch a China-exclusive version of the iX3 based on this platform later this year. BMW stated that orders for this model are expected to exceed 100,000 units, and its all-electric i3 sedan has also received substantial order volumes. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volkswagen all reported declines in global deliveries for the same quarter, down 8%, 16%, and 8.6% respectively. These automakers attributed their weak sales primarily to intensifying competition in China, alongside persistently high energy and labor costs in Europe and the impact of U.S. tariffs on high-margin imported vehicles.