BMW Brilliance launches layoffs of about 1,800 on November 2, with n+5 compensation package

On November 2, BMW Brilliance initiated layoffs involving approximately 1,800 people, about 10% of the company's total workforce. BMW Brilliance is headquartered in Shenyang. Union lists show a total workforce of about 19,000, with positions divided into P positions (production sequence) and G positions (management sequence). This round of layoffs covers all position types, with the vast majority of those laid off being frontline production P positions. Laid-off employees include those who joined three to five years ago, those who worked for more than a decade and rose to section chief, and a 57-year-old G-position employee who was three years from retirement. The compensation package is uniformly n+5, where n is calculated based on pre-tax monthly salary and 5 is calculated based on base salary, excluding the performance portion. Laid-off employees can legally claim unemployment benefits before finding new jobs, for a maximum of two years. A week earlier, internal word spread that employees were told to wait for calls starting November 2; those who received calls would process their departure, while those who did not would continue working. For nearly three years, BMW Brilliance has stopped external recruitment and has not renewed labor contracts upon expiration. G-position employees said that starting in 2026, colleagues in their departments whose contracts were nearing expiration were notified in advance of non-renewal; one P-position department began implementing a non-renewal strategy in 2025. For outsourced personnel, the delivery frequency of chemical distribution truck drivers dropped from daily to one day per week. In July 2026, the BMW Group announced an agreement with employee representatives to cut about 8,000 white-collar positions by the end of 2027 through voluntary departure, mainly concentrated in administrative, R&D and planning non-production positions in Germany, with production line workers not included. The compensation package reaches up to 650,000 euros (about 4.87 million yuan), and compensation can be paid in a lump sum, in installments, or transferred to a pension account. Early departure comes with an additional turbo bonus, and those aged 55 or older can continue to enjoy employee car purchase discounts. After the compensation inquiry channel opened on October 8, about 40,000 eligible employees logged into the system to calculate amounts, and the system crashed. BMW subsequently suspended accepting new applications and prioritized already submitted intentions. BMW said the expenditure is a one-time cost, and after position optimization is completed, it can save about 1 billion euros in labor costs annually starting from 2028. In 2025, BMW delivered about 625,500 vehicles in China, down 12.5% year on year, with declines exceeding 10% for two consecutive years. In the first half of 2026, China market deliveries were 261,800 vehicles, down 20.4% year on year, with a single-quarter decline of 30.2% in the second quarter. The combined sales of BBA in 2025 decreased by about 260,000 vehicles compared with 2024, a decline of about 12.3%.