BMW's Factory Floor and Boardroom Move in Opposite Directions

BMW has begun series production of its Gen6 high-voltage batteries at its Shenyang plant, the company confirmed, with the first units rolling off the line on 15 October. The milestone lands alongside a second electric-drive commitment: more than EUR 100 million earmarked for e-motor output in Steyr through 2029, a plan reported on 14 October that would create capacity for power electronics and inverter components at the Austrian site.

The distinction between the two matters for anyone tracking the investment case. Shenyang is running. Steyr is still a promise.

Deliveries retreat while electric volume climbs

The commercial backdrop to that spending is a mixed one. BMW shipped 551,072 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter of 2026, down 6.3% from the same period a year earlier. Battery-electric deliveries, by contrast, rose 7.2% to 110,257 units. Growth in one slice of the range does not offset weakness across the whole, and the two figures deserve to be read separately.

The softer trend extends beyond a single quarter. January through September 2026 produced 1,707,799 deliveries, 4.9% below the prior-year level.

Jefferies weighed in on Monday with a forecast of falling revenue for the third quarter, an expectation that points the same way as the shipment numbers. Even so, reported deliveries and an analyst projection are not the same thing: the vehicles shipped are fact, while the revenue decline is a call on what has yet to be published. BMW's quarterly statement, due 4 November, is the next hard checkpoint for testing that view. Until then, weaker volumes should not be conflated with a confirmed drop in sales.

Severance sign-ups shut early

On the personnel side, BMW closed registration for its voluntary severance programme in Germany ahead of schedule, having hit its target. Several thousand employees had signalled their willingness to leave since 8 October, according to Handelsblatt. What the company has not yet done is sign the agreements themselves — applicants will learn by mid-November whether a termination contract is actually concluded. Reaching the target and sealing the paperwork are separate steps, and the programme's financial impact cannot be derived from the registration count alone.

The shares added 2.2% in the previous session. A positive move in the stock is no confirmation of better operating performance, and no direct link between the gain and the severance scheme has been established.

A cautious note from RBC

Valuation watchers got a more sober signal on 14 October, when RBC cut its price target to EUR 58 from EUR 60 while keeping a Sector Perform rating on the equity.

Taken together, the picture is not uniformly bullish. What stands out is the gap between expanding electric demand and shrinking overall shipments. The production build-out underscores BMW's tilt toward electric drivetrains; it does not prove that total vehicle sales are on the mend. Two dates now frame the near-term agenda — the 4 November quarterly release for the business trend, and the mid-November feedback on the severance contracts for the workforce side of the story.