First VW, now also BMW: The Munich car manufacturer has to accept a drop in profits for the past 2024 financial year. After taxes, the group earned 7.7 billion euros. That sounds a lot, but is 37 percent less than in the previous year and the second severe decline. In addition to weakening sales in China, the Munichers also suffered from problems with brakes related to the supplier Continental. In pre-exchanging trading, the BMW share lost more than three percent at times, and sales also had to accept a clear dampers. 142 billion euros are a minus of 8.4 percent. After all, BMW expects increasing demand for the current year. Despite the “challenging” situation and the recently imposed inches imposed by the USA, the input tax result should again land roughly at the level of 2024. BMW does not give a forecast for profit after taxes, so the German car manufacturers are deep in the crisis? This depends on which perspective you look at it: money or future, and the question of the financial situation will be well deserved, it is worth widening. The current results should not only be compared in the past few years, says industry expert Frank Schwope, the automotive industry at the University of Applied Sciences in Mittelstand in Cologne and Hanover. “We are currently seeing normalization after a special situation with profits that have not yet been known. After the first Corona slump in 2020, there was hardly any discounts and a shift towards more expensive models in the following years- especially due to the chip or vehicle deficiency, ”he explains. “This brought the manufacturers such as VW, Mercedes or BMW exorbitantly high margins that are normally not to be reached.” This can also be understood on the BMW numbers: the previous record profit of 18.6 billion euros from 2022. 2021 and 2023 was more than 12 billion. Compared to this, the current result looks puny. But before these three special years changed the scale, the old record win from 2017 was 8.7 billion. Even if you take into account inflation, the current result of 7.7 billion does not look quite as bad in comparison, so it also sees the Schwope, which relates to all three large corporations: “The current numbers are not bad. They only look bad compared to the special years, ”he says. He doesn’t want to speak of crisis. “Of course it always depends on how to define crisis, but I think more of times when, for example, VW has slipped into the red numbers.” In any case, the current figures are no reason to whine.
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Industry has concerns about the future of the future, however, is not a reason for the all -clear: Because the times are challenging and the manufacturers “concern about an impending crisis and do well to adapt the structures at an early stage,” says Schwope.VW: Among other things, almost every fourth job is to be dropped by the VW car car in Germany by 2030. Mercedes also wants to reduce the costs of several billion euros in the coming years and has announced a severance payment program. And the list can be continued: At Porsche there are 1900 jobs on the strike list at Ford in Germany 2900. The suppliers also be deleted or dismantled: Bosch, Schaeffler, ZF, Continental, Thyssenkrupp – to give just a few names. This concern is also expressed in the mood in the industry. And it is bad – especially if you also take a look at the suppliers. The business climate index for the auto industry, which is raised by the Munich IFO Institute, is currently almost 35 points deep in the minus. After all: BMW can escape a bit: the permanent staff has recently increased easily. The global auto industry is particularly affected by disruption. The biggest problems are disturbed supply chains, increasing material costs and growing uncertainties in international trade relationships. Last but not least, the latter are threatened by the customs plans of the US President Donald Trump. And then there is China: On the one hand, the world’s largest market that had long ensured rapid growth and high profits is much more difficult. On the other hand, the competition from there is getting stronger – especially in the increasingly important area of electromobility. Latter is also a problem area in itself. The pure electricity still only make up relatively small shares in the sales of the corporations and the parallel work with combustion, hybrids and pure streamers makes a lot more complicated. And the sales of the electric cars are not quite progressing for most manufacturers. BMW is much better here than the other German manufacturers and was able to significantly increase its sales last year. However, 427,000 electric vehicles sold are not even a fifth of their own overall production. BMW describes them as the most important growth driver. The new class should bring additional thrust here. Their first series vehicle is scheduled to come onto the market at the end of 2025. BMW also took a lot of money for this last year. The group spent a total of 18 billion euros on research and development.
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