This means that the company is well above the expectations of analysts, who had expected a profit of less than 7 billion. However, sales fell by 6.3 percent to 133 billion and the forecast for 2026 is negative.

More stable than the competition

BMW has so far come through the general crisis in the German auto industry comparatively well. Although it is already the third annual decline in profits, the two German competitors Mercedes and Volkswagen each almost halved their profits last year. In comparison, the decline among Munich residents is almost harmless.

That’s also enough to lift the Munich-based company to first place in the profit ranking: Mercedes’ bottom line was 5.3 billion euros in 2025, and the much larger Volkswagen Group’s bottom line was 6.9 billion.

No job cuts so far

And while other German car manufacturers are cutting jobs, BMW has so far gotten through the crisis without any job-cutting programs.

A clear plus point for the Munich-based company is that they are at least partially spared from the tariffs there thanks to their own large factory in the USA. Almost 413,000 cars were built there last year, more than half of which stayed in the USA. This means that BMW had to import less than half of the cars sold in the US.

They also benefit from the fact that they have designed their factories in such a way that electric cars, hybrids and combustion engines can be produced on one production line. This helps to cushion the uncertainties when electromobility ramps up. BMW boss Oliver Zipse emphasized: “We have strategically positioned ourselves correctly in recent years. We are benefiting from this today: We do not have to change course in a challenging environment, but can stay on course and continue to consistently implement our strategy.”

Zipse’s last numbers

The annual balance sheet is the last one for which Zipse is responsible. His designated successor, Milan Nedeljkovic, will take over on May 14th. He is currently head of production, a position that Zipse also held before his rise to the top of the company.

Nedeljkovic has been involved with Zipse’s most important project for a long time, which will have a say in the fate and fate of BMW in the coming years. The new class, whose first representative iX3 was introduced last year, has been available at dealers for a few days.

So far she’s off to a strong start. In view of high orders, BMW introduced an additional shift in production in January. The Munich-based company also wants to present the next car in the new class shortly: with the i3 – the electric counterpart to the 3 Series – in a volume area that is central to the Munich-based company.

Cautious forecast

However, BMW is cautious about its outlook for the current year and assumes that pre-tax profit will decline moderately despite stable deliveries. Contributing factors to this include tariffs, currency effects and more expensive raw materials.