BMW's US Momentum Meets a Harder Road Home to 8% Margins

BMW's US third-quarter deliveries rose 3.4% to 100,210 vehicles, while the group targets a 3% to 5% auto EBIT margin by 2028.

BMW's North American business is doing what much of the rest of the world is not. Deliveries of the core BMW brand in the United States climbed 3.4% year-on-year to 100,210 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, according to figures released by BMW of North America. Passenger cars accounted for 43,622 of those units, up 3.8%, while light trucks contributed 56,588, a gain of 3.2%.

Across the first nine months, the Munich manufacturer moved 287,154 vehicles in the US, 4.3% more than a year earlier. Canada added its own flourish: third-quarter volume there jumped 25.0% to 8,164 cars. The strength rests partly on geography — BMW's Spartanburg plant in South Carolina shields it from the tariffs and trade frictions squeezing rivals that ship into the US from abroad.

That transatlantic cushion matters because the picture elsewhere is far less comfortable. Weak demand in China forced BMW into its third profit warning in just over three years back in June, and the automotive division's operating EBIT margin slumped to 2.3% in the second quarter. Management is now trying to buy its way back to health through the procurement department, aiming to source far more standardized components from suppliers. Such parts are to make up the bulk of an annual purchasing volume of EUR 80 billion by 2032, a push designed to cut development costs and sharpen the group's edge against Chinese competitors.

A two-day pitch to skeptical investors

The cost story was central to a two-day capital markets day staged in Gmund and Munich, where the board laid out how it intends to lift returns. The product range will be narrowed, higher-margin segments expanded, and management layers cut by 20%. Artificial intelligence is to speed up development work, with further operational decisions due by spring 2027.

Manufacturing is being reworked in parallel. Roughly EUR 2 billion is being channeled into the Dingolfing and Munich plants and into battery production to prepare for the new 3 Series. The fully electric i3 will roll out of the company's Munich headquarters, while combustion and plug-in hybrid versions are assigned to Dingolfing. High-voltage batteries for the Neue Klasse will come from the newly opened Irlbach-Straßkirchen facility, which absorbed EUR 1 billion in investment.

On the financial side, BMW held out a waypoint rather than a destination: an EBIT margin of 3% to 5% for the automotive segment by 2028, with a return to the long-term 8% to 10% corridor expected in the early 2030s. For North American showrooms, the new 3 Series and the electric i3 are slated to arrive in early 2027, and the company is weighing a luxury SUV positioned above the X7 aimed squarely at affluent US buyers.

Analysts trim, but stay constructive

Deutsche Bank Research offered a measured response to the strategy update. On Thursday, analyst Tim Rokossa cut his price target on BMW shares to EUR 71 from EUR 78 while keeping a Buy rating, citing fading hopes for a broad recovery across the auto sector. The bank, however, voiced confidence in the company's self-help measures presented during the capital markets day.

The stock gave up 1.4% in Xetra trading on the day of that note, changing hands at EUR 54.32, after closing the previous session at EUR 55.08. Year-to-date, the shares are down 42%, a decline that captures the sector-wide headwinds BMW is still fighting. Investors get their next hard operational numbers on November 4, 2026, when the company publishes its quarterly statement for the period ending September 30.