German carmaker BMW posted a higher-than-forecast profit margin in its core car business in the third quarter despite import tariffs in the US and EU and intense competition in China, the company said on Wednesday.
BMW reported an operating margin of 5.2% for its automotive unit in the July-to-September period, up from 2.3% in the same period last year and higher than the 4.9% forecast in a company-provided poll of analysts.
After revising down its full-year guidance last month due to tariff costs and slow growth in China, the group said it continued to expect the margin for cars to land in the forecast range of 5 to 6%.
Group earnings before interest and tax were in line with expectations at €2.3bn, up by a third year on year following a weak performance in the third quarter of 2024 when brake issues hit sales.
Quarterly group revenues missed expectations slightly at €32.3bn.
“In the third quarter, we once again proved that our business model is robust and resilient,” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said.
The BMW Group maintained its growth trajectory in the third quarter, with customer deliveries rising by 8.8%. From January to September 2025, the group delivered a total of about 1.8-million BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles to customers, achieving slight sales growth of 2.4%. During the same period, the company increased sales of fully electric vehicles (EV) by 10.0% to 323,447 units.
The BMW brand sold 514,620 vehicles in the third quarter (up 5.7%). The brand continued to increase sales across all regions outside of China, achieving particularly strong growth in Europe and the Americas. BMW plug-in hybrids are in high demand and the brand increased its global deliveries of vehicles with this drive technology by 30.2% compared to the previous year.
BMW M reported a strong third quarter, with sales rising 11% to 52,220 units compared to the same period in 2024.
The Mini brand delivered 72,376 units in the third quarter — an increase of 37.5%.
In the YTD September, the Rolls-Royce delivered 4,100 cars to customers – 3.3% more than during the same period of last year.
BMW Motorrad increased its motorcycle sales in the third quarter to 53,247 units, a rise of 5.7%.
With Reuters
