BMW lowers profit outlook due to China downturn, Iran war double whammy

By Rachel More

BERLIN, June 16 (Reuters) - BMW slashed its outlook for 2026 on Tuesday, blaming an accelerated downturn in the key Chinese market as well as the impact of the Iran war, which the German premium carmaker said had hit consumer sentiment and raised energy costs.

The comments showed how exposed Europe's auto sector — already pummelled by fierce Asian competition and weak demand at home — is to developments abroad.

BMW said it now expects an operating margin in its core automotive segment of between 1% to 3%, down from 4% to 6% previously, as well as a slight decrease in core deliveries in 2026, having previously expected them to be on par.

The company's group profit before tax is expected to fall significantly, which BMW defines as a decline of more than 15%, after previously forecasting a moderate drop.

After the outlook cut, Frankfurt-listed shares in BMW were 6.6% lower on the day at 1810 GMT.

BMW will "significantly intensify and accelerate" cost cutting measures as a result, CEO Milan Nedeljković said, adding the group would adapt "current structures and processes to the drastic downturn in market conditions".

The automaker did not disclose details, only saying these steps would lead to a negative one-off in the second half of 2026.

China remains the biggest market for Germany's automakers, with Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all feeling the pain from what some executives have described as "Darwinian" price competition.

BMW said it could not "operate in isolation of this situation", and market momentum in the United States and Europe could not offset the decline in the world's biggest car market.

The company also said the impact from the Middle East conflict had turned out to be worse than initially expected, pointing to higher energy prices as well as deteriorating consumer sentiment around the world due to the "lack of stability".

(Reporting by Rachel More and Danny Callaghan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Christoph Steitz and Cynthia Osterman)