BMW to cut 8,000 jobs worldwide by end of 2027

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG announced on Wednesday a voluntary severance programme that will eliminate around 8,000 positions worldwide by the end of 2027, making it the last major German automaker to launch a large-scale workforce reduction amid mounting pressures on the industry.

Severance Open to Tens of Thousands

The programme, agreed with employee representatives after roughly six weeks of talks, will run from October 2026 through the end of 2027 and target all employees in Germany outside direct production, according to company sources cited by Deutsche Presse-Agentur and AFP. About 40,000 of BMW's roughly 85,000 permanent German employees — those in administration and development roles — will be eligible for severance packages, while production workers will be spared. With more than half of BMW's nearly 154,000 global workforce based in Germany, the majority of the cuts are expected to fall there.marketscreener+2

Industry-Wide Pressures

At a works meeting where the plans were presented, CEO Milan Nedeljkovic, who took over from Oliver Zipse in mid-May, acknowledged the scale of the challenge. "I am aware that the period ahead will ask a lot of all of us. But we must ensure that our company becomes more profitable and more competitive again," he told employees, according to MarketScreener.marketscreener

Nedeljkovic pointed to "a substantial change in the rules of the game for our industry" and criticized "political targets that are detached from the market," saying the company must "quickly and decisively streamline our structures and processes". The announcement follows a profit warning he issued in mid-June, just a month after becoming CEO.marketscreener

BMW's move mirrors actions already taken across Germany's auto sector. Volkswagen, Mercedes Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Audi, and Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG had all announced job cuts last year, in some cases on a much larger scale. Just this week, Porsche announced 5,000 additional job reductions. The industry is contending with a slump in the Chinese market, intensifying competition from Chinese automakers, U.S. tariffs, and broader geopolitical disruption.marketscreener

Costs and What Comes Next

The financial impact of the restructuring remains partly unclear. CFO Walter Mertl indicated in June that one-off charges of around 1 billion euros would be involved, though it was uncertain how much would be devoted solely to personnel reductions. BMW is set to report half-year results on Thursday, offering its first detailed financial picture under Nedeljkovic's leadership.marketscreener

IG Metall Bavaria's district leader Horst Ott said BMW was "responding to the collapsing market in China while working in parallel to strengthen the competitiveness of the German sites," adding that the cuts would be carried out "using the instruments agreed by labor and management".marketscreener