BMW is planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany, according to reports, as Europe’s largest carmakers reduce costs under pressure from Chinese competitors. The Munich-based company has started a voluntary redundancy programme agreed with employee representatives, a BMW spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The programme targets the administration and development divisions, the spokesperson said, adding that production operations are excluded. BMW’s total workforce is about 160,000.
Industry pressures
Germany’s carmakers have faced intense pressure from the rise of Chinese competitors who have quickly dominated the electric vehicle market. Chinese manufacturers have launched a fierce price war in their home market, which had been a lucrative source of export earnings for European brands including BMW.
European carmakers have also had to fund their own transition from petrol to electric and cope with the impact of US tariffs. Several manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Stellantis and Ford, have turned to partnerships with Chinese rivals to help them build and sell in Europe.
BMW’s cuts come after Milan Nedeljković, previously head of production, took over as chief executive in May.
Company statement
A spokesperson said: “The BMW Group is proactively shaping the profound changes taking place in its operating environment. These include the technological transformation of the automotive industry, geopolitical uncertainties, changing market conditions and developments in China.”
Other manufacturers
Volkswagen, Germany’s largest carmaker by volume, confirmed on Friday that it would cut as many as 100,000 jobs from its total workforce of 650,000. The plans include closing four factories and halving the number of models produced.
Porsche, the sports car brand part-owned by Volkswagen, is also undergoing severe restructuring. Another 5,000 job cuts were agreed this week, taking total planned redundancies to 9,000 – a fifth of its workforce – by 2035. The Stuttgart-based company reported a €1.4bn (£1.2bn) profit before tax on Wednesday, up from €1.1bn a year earlier.
Porsche’s sales in China slumped by 30% to 14,500 in the first half of 2026, faster than the 17% decline across the group as a whole. Donald Trump’s withdrawal of subsidies for electric cars such as Porsche’s Taycan also hit North American sales.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin has also struggled in China and the US. The Warwickshire-based company’s losses grew in the first half of the year despite it saying that its turnaround efforts had improved sales.
Aston Martin reported a loss before tax of £89m in the second quarter of 2026, up from £61m in the same period a year earlier, in a statement to the stock market on Wednesday. That left the loss for the first six months at £154m.
The FTSE 250 company’s share price rose by 3.5%, however, after it said its performance had “materially improved” during the half year with revenues up 38% to £629m.
Famed as the maker of the sports cars featured in the James Bond films, Aston Martin has endured years of turmoil since it listed on the London stock market in 2018. The fashion billionaire Lawrence Stroll rescued the company in early 2020, only for the Covid pandemic and subsequent supply chain disruption to rock the global industry. The company has gone through years of new fundraisings and job cuts, most recently making a fifth of its workers redundant in February.
