BMW deliveries fall as U.S., China weakness offsets Europe gains

BMW’s first-quarter delivery decline showed how little insulation even premium automakers now have from the global slowdown. The BMW Group delivered 565,748 vehicles worldwide in the first three months of 2026, down 3.5% from a year earlier, as a 3% gain in Europe was overwhelmed by declines of 4.3% in the United States and 10% in China.

The regional split was especially telling. Germany was a bright spot, with deliveries up 10.7% to 68,022 vehicles, but stronger home-market sales could not offset weakness in the two markets that matter most for BMW’s global earnings mix. In the United States, BMW of North America reported 84,231 BMW-brand sales, down 3.9% from 87,615 a year earlier, and said nearly 12% of BMW vehicles sold in the market carried a battery-electric or plug-in hybrid drivetrain. BMW said the discontinuation of battery-electric-vehicle incentives affected the entire U.S. market, underscoring how quickly policy shifts can change demand at the luxury end as well as the mass market.

China remains the tougher structural challenge. The 10% drop there extended a broader pattern that has now ensnared nearly every major German automaker, with Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen all facing delivery pressure in the market. For BMW, that means the problem is no longer only cyclical. It reflects a more competitive and localized Chinese auto market, where premium brands must fight domestic rivals that are faster on product, software and pricing.

BMW’s electric-vehicle business also cooled. The company delivered 87,458 fully electric vehicles worldwide in the quarter, down 20.1%, even as the first BMW iX3 deliveries reached customers in Europe in March. Yet there were signs of demand beneath the weak headline numbers. New battery-electric-vehicle orders in Europe rose about 40% year over year, driven by the Neue Klasse iX3, and Jochen Goller said BMW had received well over 50,000 new orders for the model since ordering opened in Europe. BMW also said more than half of BMW X3 orders were already fully electric.

The contrast with last year is sharp. In the first quarter of 2025, BMW Group delivered 586,117 premium vehicles, with Europe up 6.2% and the U.S. up 4.0%, while fully electric deliveries rose 32.4%. Full-year 2025 sales still climbed to 2,450,854 vehicles, helped by growth in Europe, the Americas and parts of Asia even as China softened. Now, BMW’s next phase depends on whether the Neue Klasse rollout, including the iX3 and i3 and a broader BEV lineup by the end of 2026, can restore momentum before weakness in China and the U.S. becomes the industry’s new normal.