Slump in the auto industry Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi, and now BMW, too: Things Aren't Going so Well

In the third quarter of 2026, deliveries by all German automakers declined significantly compared to last year ...

German automakers are clearly heading toward a year of weak sales. And the slump in sales figures on the Chinese market is taking a toll everywhere. Some automakers are at least able to offset some of their losses in other markets. BMW, for example, is one of them. The Munich-based company was the last to report its sales figures for July through September. The decline in deliveries ranges from just over 6 percent to nearly 20 percent. However, given the slightly different calculation methods, the figures are not directly comparable. Nevertheless, they reveal a general trend. Here’s how things look for the individual German automakers:

Spartanburg and New Models Give BMW a Boost

BMW reported a decline of 6.3 percent (to just over 551,000 vehicles). This means the Munich-based (Germany) automaker has fared the best, even though it, too, is struggling in China: Sales there fell by nearly 25 percent (to just over 114,300 cars). However, in Europe, BMW saw a 2.7 percent increase (to about 235,600 cars) due to strong demand for electric vehicles (such as the new iX3). And in the U.S., the company benefited from its plant in Spartanburg, which spared it tariffs on many vehicles. BMW also saw growth there, rising by 2.5 percent (to more than 106,700 cars). In the first nine months, however, sales fell by 4.9 percent to 1.71 million vehicles. Despite all this, the core brand is performing slightly worse than the group as a whole. In the third quarter, sales fell by 6.8 percent (to nearly 479,300 cars). Even so, BMW still ranks well ahead of its two longtime rivals, Mercedes and Audi.

Volkswagen's Losses Continue to Grow

In Wolfsburg, the downward trend has recently accelerated, as the VW Group sold 1.89 million vehicles across all brands from July through September—a 14.3 percent decline from the previous year. In the second quarter, the decline had been 8.6 percent. The situation was even worse for the core brand: in the third quarter, 19.3 percent fewer cars were delivered—a total of more than 946,000 units. Things are also going particularly poorly for the group in China. VW’s sales figures in the People’s Republic fell by 38.5 percent in the third quarter (to 405,800 cars). Incidentally, the decline there accounted for 80 percent of the overall drop. So even Europe’s largest automaker is struggling in China with a shrinking overall market, intense price pressure, and growing competition from local companies. This also overshadows other developments, such as the significantly rising demand for electric cars in Europe. In the first nine months of the year, deliveries across the entire group totaled just over six million vehicles (down 9 percent).

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