BMW Cuts Outlook Again as Carmaker Revenue Up on Restructuring — Update

By Adria Calatayud

BMW again cut its annual guidance, warning that its core automotive segment could slide to a loss for a closely watched profitability metric, as the group moves to speed up its restructuring program.

With problems mounting for the industry, several European carmakers are shifting up a gear on their plans to overhaul their operations--shedding jobs, reshuffling their model lineups and--in some cases--changing course on their strategies.

A prolonged slump and price wars in China's auto market--the world's biggest--, the global expansion of Chinese carmakers and trade frictions have all contributed to cloud the outlook for Europe's auto industry.

BMW has vowed to slim its workforce and boost efficiencies through the use of artificial intelligence under its new chief executive, Milan Nedeljkovic. In September, the company said it would cut the number of divisions and management roles by a fifth, after reaching agreements with labor representatives earlier in the year for a plan to shed thousands of jobs.

Fellow German makers of luxury cars Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche are all in the midst of their own restructuring programs.

"Current developments in our industry call for decisiveness and swift implementation. We will therefore specifically intensify and accelerate structural measures," Nedeljkovic said.

As a result, BMW slashed its auto-segment profitability outlook for the second time this year. It forecast an earnings before interest and taxes margin at its core auto business to range from minus 0.5%--indicating losses--to positive 0.5% for the full year. In June, the company lowered its guidance for the metric to between 1% and 3%.

BMW also projected auto deliveries to fall moderately this year relative to 2025, having previously expected them to decline slightly.

The company said the guidance changes stemmed from a nonoperating hit to results that it expects to book alongside fourth-quarter earnings, as it decided to expand and intensify portfolio and structural measures. Without the restructuring effects, BMW continues to expect its auto segment to deliver a margin above 2% for the full year, it said.

High demand for BMW's Neue Klasse models, a new generation of cars, led the company to introduce additional production shifts and to begin phasing out previous vehicle and technology generations earlier, it said. The company also plans to implement a restructuring program faster than it previously anticipated.

For the third quarter, BMW reported a net profit of 1.46 billion euros ($1.63 billion), down from 1.67 billion euros for the same period last year.

At the group's auto segment, earnings before interest and taxes plunged 40% to 901 million euros as sales fell and its margin shrank to 3.4% from 5.2% a year before, it said. The result still beat analysts' expectations of 794 million, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.

BMW reported a 30% drop in earnings before interest and taxes of 1.59 billion euros for the group as a whole, against consensus expectations of 1.71 billion euros.

Group revenue fell to 30.45 billion euros from 32.31 billion euros, as BMW shipped fewer cars due to weakness in the Chinese auto market. Analysts had forecast quarterly revenue at 29.85 billion euros, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2026 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT)