Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW Group) is a Munich-based premium carmaker with five brands: BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, BMW ALPINA and BMW Motorrad. It began in 1916 as an aircraft-engine maker, built its first motorcycle in 1923 and moved into cars after buying Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach in 1928. In 2025 it delivered 2,463,681 cars and 202,563 motorcycles and reported revenue of ~$151 billion (EUR133.5 billion).
How BMW makes money
Car sales drive the business. The Automotive segment, covering BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, generated ~$133 billion (EUR117.6 billion) of revenue in 2025. BMW Financial Services added ~$45 billion (EUR39.8 billion) from leasing and loans and financed or leased 46.6% of new BMW Group vehicles, which keeps customers in the brand when leases end. BMW Motorrad contributed ~$3.5 billion (EUR3.1 billion). BMW M is an important margin lever: it delivered a record 213,449 cars in 2025, one in ten BMWs sold.
Financial trend: from peak to reset
Revenue peaked at ~$176 billion (EUR155.5 billion) in 2023, when the automotive EBIT margin was 9.8%. It then fell to ~$161 billion (EUR142.4 billion) in 2024 and ~$151 billion (EUR133.5 billion) in 2025, with the automotive margin down to 5.3% as China pricing, tariffs and currency weighed. Group profit before tax still reached ~$11.5 billion (EUR10.2 billion) in 2025, and net profit was ~$8.47 billion (EUR7.5 billion). In the first half of 2026 revenue fell 8.0% to ~$70.4 billion (EUR62.3 billion) and Group EBT dropped 29.4% to ~$4.52 billion (EUR4.0 billion).
The China problem
China is where BMW's position has changed most. Deliveries there fell 12.5% in 2025 and 20.4% in the first half of 2026, including a 30.2% drop in the second quarter, as local brands won buyers with cheaper EVs and stronger in-car software. That decline was the main reason for the 16 June 2026 profit warning, which cut 2026 automotive margin guidance to 1-3% from 4-6%.
Neue Klasse
The Neue Klasse is BMW's new generation of electric, software-defined vehicle technology. The first model, the BMW iX3, premiered in September 2025, is built in Debrecen, Hungary, and has drawn more than 100,000 European orders. The BMW i3 sedan follows, and the technologies are spreading to the new X5 and 7 Series. In Europe, fully electric cars were 31.3% of BMW Group deliveries in Q2 2026.
Ownership and leadership
BMW is listed in Frankfurt and part of the DAX, but Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, heirs of Herbert Quandt who blocked a Daimler-Benz takeover in 1959, hold close to half of the shares. All preferred shares were converted into voting ordinary shares in June 2026. Milan Nedeljković, a BMW production veteran who joined as a trainee in 1993, succeeded Oliver Zipse as CEO on 14 May 2026.
What comes next
At its Capital Market Day on 30 September 2026, BMW set a 3-5% automotive margin target for 2028 and a return to 8-10% by the start of the next decade. The plan cuts variants, adds a first BMW ALPINA model in 2027 and a compact Neue Klasse EV for Europe in 2028, raises local production in China and reduces divisions and management roles by 20% by mid-2027.
