BMW Group profitability in line with expectations in first quarter

• Pre-tax earnings (EBT) exceed €3.1 billion; Group EBT margin at 9.2%
• Automotive Segment’s 6.9% EBIT margin at upper end of full-year guidance
• BEVs remain strongest growth driver: +32.4%
• Over a quarter of all vehicles delivered in Q1 were electrified
• Outlook for 2025 confirmed based on updated premises
• Zipse: “Technology-open approach remains a key success factor”

Attractive products, strong order volumes and strict cost discipline have ensured for the BMW Group a start to the year according to plan. The premium manufacturer from Munich continued its dynamic BEV ramp-up in a volatile and competitive environment, while delivering profitability at the upper end of its 2025 target range in the Automotive Segment. The BMW Group has thus once again confirmed the long-term viability of its strategy of technology openness.

In the first quarter of the year, the BMW Group delivered 586,117 premium vehicles to customers (-1.4%). More than a quarter of these were electrified (26.9%), with fully-electric vehicles once again showing significant sales growth of +32.4%. The EBIT margin in the Automotive Segment – one of the company’s key profit indicators – stood at 6.9%, placing it at the upper end of the targeted range of 5-7% for the year.

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“The more challenging the environment, the more crucial it is to have compelling products, a consistent strategy and a high degree of flexibility. Our technology-open approach remains a key success factor: with our young, highly attractive models and our broad range of drives, we are able to meet the various needs of customers worldwide. This enables us to achieve robust results and stay on course to meet our ambitious full-year targets,” said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “With the NEUE KLASSE, we are putting our biggest future project on the road: we are expanding our fully-electric offering, and rolling out future technology clusters and the new design language across our entire model portfolio. This will raise the level of innovation in our vehicles across all drive types to a whole new level – while also setting the course for profitable growth and sustainable success.”

Significant increase in fully-electric vehicle deliveries

Despite persistently strong competition in China, the company’s global deliveries remained largely in line with the previous year (-1.4%). In the first three months, the BMW Group achieved growth in key markets Europe (+6.2%) and the US (+4.0%).

In the first quarter of 2025, the BMW brand delivered a total of 520,121 vehicles to customers worldwide, surpassing the previous year’s volume in all regions except China. The strongest growth was recorded by the new BMW 5 Series models (+35.8%), as well as the BMW X1 and X2 variants (+31.8%).

The BMW M brand achieved solid sales growth of +5.0% in the first quarter, delivering a total of 50,500 vehicles to customers. The main growth drivers were the high-performance models BMW M3* and M3 Touring* as well as BMW M5* and BMW M5 touring*, which were in high demand across all regions.

The MINI brand, which updated its entire product range over the course of last year, sold 64,615 units worldwide – an increase of 4.1%. The Rolls-Royce brand delivered 1,381 units to customers between January and March (-9.4%).

Fully-electric vehicles from the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands reported significant growth, with 109,513 deliveries worldwide (+32.4%). The BMW iX1* was the brand’s most successful BEV model, while the BMW i4* accounted for half of all BMW 4 Series delivered.

Sales of fully-electric vehicles saw the strongest growth in Europe (+64.2%). New models from the MINI brand were major contributors to this: The urban premium brand delivered a total of 22,794 fully-electric vehicles, achieving a BEV share of 35.3%.

The BMW Group currently offers at least one model with an electrified drive train in every vehicle class. Total deliveries of electrified vehicles (BEVs and PHEVs) also rose significantly in the first three months of the year, reaching 157,487 vehicles (2024: 122,582 vehicles/+28.5%).

The BMW Group is successfully implementing its strategic plan to further expand e-mobility. Additionally, it will reach two significant sales milestones: first, the delivery of 1.5 million fully-electric premium vehicles since the market launch of the BMW i3 in 2013; and second, a total of three million electrified cars since then.

Group EBT margin at 9.2% 

First-quarter Group revenues totalled € 33,758 million (2024: € 36,614 million/-7.8%; currency-adjusted: -8,7%). As previously announced, the BMW Group benefited from a moderate reduction in administrative and sales expenses. Compared with the previous year, sales revenues declined particularly in the highly competitive Chinese market, as expected.

Between January and March, the BMW Group reported pre-tax earnings (EBT) of € 3,113 million (2024: € 4,162 million/-25.2%). 

The EBT margin for this period was 9.2% (2024: 11.4%). Group net profit for the first quarter totalled €  2,173 million (2024: € 2,951 million/-26.4%).

Automotive EBIT margin at upper end of full-year guidance

The Automotive Segment earned revenues of € 29,211 million (2024: € 30,939 million/-5.6%%).

The anti-subsidy tariffs on BEVs produced in China, introduced by the European Commission in October, increased the cost of sales, creating a headwind in the low three-digit million euro range, as forecast.

Earnings before financial result (EBIT) for the first quarter totalled € 2,024 million (2024: € 2,710 million/-25.3%). The EBIT margin came in at 6.9% (2024: 8.8%) and was thus at the high end of the target range of 5-7% for the year. Excluding depreciation and amortisation from the BBA purchase price allocation,the EBIT margin for the first quarter was 8.1%.

The BMW Group is systematically leveraging innovations, focusing on efficient and low-emission technologies, as well as further electrification and digitalisation of both its product line-up and the company.

Based on the strength of its current operating performance, the BMW Group allocated € 1,984  million (2024: € 1,974 million/+0.5%) to research and development in the first quarter which was concentrated on electrification and digitalisation of the vehicle fleet across all model series.

The company also incurred R&D expenditure primarily for the future models of the NEUE KLASSE, such as the BMW iX3, and the successor models to the BMW X5 and BMW X7.

“The BMW Group stands for long-term growth, sustainable value creation and continued dependability for its stakeholders. Stable financial performance and effective cost management characterised the first quarter despite the challenging environment. We remain focused on improving our efficiency and optimising our cost structures,” said Walter Mertl, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Finance, at the quarterly conference call in Munich.

“Digitalisation and AI are contributing to this. Innovation and business benefits go hand in hand for us. We are also leveraging the proven flexibility of our network to address the current geopolitical challenges.”

Automotive Segment free cash flow at € 413 million

The free cash flow of the Automotive segment amounted to €413 million in the first quarter of 2025 (2024: €1,283 million). The decline compared to the previous year is primarily due to lower earnings before taxes, an expected higher consumption of provisions, and increased cash outflows from capital expenditures related to 31 December 2024 in the amount of €964 million.

Conversely, the seasonally typical but significantly lower increase in stock compared to the previous year led to the change in working capital of €65 million (2024: -€1,189 million).

From January to March, capital expenditure totaled €1,202 million (2024: €1,323 million/-9.1%). The capex ratio came in at 3.6% (2024: 3.6%).

The BMW Group is still targeting a free cash flow of > € 5 billion in the Automotive Segment for the full year.

Robust performance in Financial Services Segment

BMW Group Financial Services benefited from dynamic new leasing business in the first quarter of the year, with new leasing contracts up 12.7%. Overall, total new retail business was down slightly, compared to the previous year, with 402,811 new contracts concluded (-4.6%). The financing and leasing business for new vehicles remained at the previous year’s level. Outside of China, new business was stable at a high level.

The volume of new business increased slightly, driven by higher financing volumes per vehicle across all financing and leasing contracts with retail customers, reaching € 15,988 million (2024: € 15,620 million/+2.4%).

The percentage of BMW Group new vehicles leased or financed by the Financial Services Segment reached 43.0% at the end of the first quarter (2024: 41.8%/+1.2 percentage points). In the three-month period, the segment reported pre-tax earnings of € 650 million (2024: € 730 million/-11.0%). Most notably, lower income from the resale of end-of-lease vehicles led to a year-on-year decrease in earnings, as the number of end-of-lease vehicles was lower than in the previous year. During the reporting period, the credit loss ratio remained at the low rate of 0.23% across the entire loan portfolio (2024: 0.21%).

BMW Motorrad with EBT margin of 9.4%

In the year to the end of March, BMW Motorrad delivered 44,609 motorcycles and scooters to customers (2024: 46,434 units; -3.9%). The segment EBIT margin of 9.4% (2024: 12.2%) was above the targeted range of 5.5-7.5% for the year.

BMW AG continues share repurchase programme

Following the authorisation granted by the Annual General Meeting of BMW AG on 11 May 2022, the company has acquired treasury shares. The shares from the initial repurchase programme have already been retired.

As of 31 March 2025, BMW AG holds 22,317,345 own shares from the second buy-back programme, corresponding to a nominal amount of €22,317,345.

Based on the authorisation granted at the Annual General Meeting of 11 May 2022, as of 31 March 2025, BMW AG had purchased shares equivalent to 7.27% of the share capital.

BMW Group confirms full-year guidance
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its forecasts for global economic growth downwards to 2.8% in April 2025: Current trade conflicts and the associated potential rise in inflation, as well as uncertainty among businesses and consumers, could weigh on global growth.

According to sector forecasts, the global automotive markets are likely to see slight growth. 

The BMW Group expects demand to rise in many markets in 2025, driven by a stabilizing inflation and further moderate interest rate cuts. In the USA, permanent tariffs could be reflected in rising inflation.

The guidance* published in the BMW Group Report 2024 in March 2025 includes all tariff increases that had taken effect by 12 March 2025. Due to the volatile developments and ongoing negotiations, the potential impact of tariffs in the current financial year can only be estimated, based on assumptions. The BMW Group expects some of the tariff increases to be temporary, with reductions from July 2025. The forecast also includes mitigating measures to offset the impact of higher tariffs.

Given the sustained demand for its attractive premium vehicles, the BMW Group is able to confirm its guidance for the year. The company anticipates slight sales growth, with fully-electric vehicles contributing to a slightly higher share of deliveries. Due to the factors mentioned above, Group earnings before tax are expected to be on a par with the previous year.**The EBIT margin for the Automotive Segment is forecast to be within the range of 5.0-7.0%, with an RoCE of between 9-13%.

In the Financial Services Segment, RoE is projected to be between 13-16%.

In the Motorcycles Segment, a slight increase in sales and an EBIT margin within the range of 5.5-7.5%are forecast, with an RoCE of 13-17%.

The above targets will be achieved with the current number of employees.

The BMW Group’s actual business performance may deviate from these projections – for example, due to changes in political and macroeconomic conditions. Risks to earnings could arise, for instance, from further tariff increases or tariffs remaining in place for longer than planned, potentially extending well into the second half of the year. The company continues to closely monitor macroeconomic developments.

Escalation of trade disputes could also lead to supply bottlenecks – for example, from import or export restrictions on specific parts or raw materials.