German car manufacturer BMW Group reported a 0.5% decline in sales for the first half of the year, marking a positive sign amid the country’s ongoing automotive sector crisis, which is being intensified by competition from China. The group clearly increased EV sales, but the growth in this area is slowing.

The premium carmaker, which owns the core BMW brand as well as Mini and Rolls-Royce, delivered a total of 1,207,388 cars in the first half of the year, with sales up 0.4% in the second quarter.

European sales are strong, but China is a foster child

In the competitive Chinese market, sales for the Munich-based carmaker plummeted by 15.5% to some 318,000 units over the first six months of the year, a trend also reflected by its German rivals.

However, BMW sales grew in all other regions, led by Europe, with an 8% increase to 498,000 cars.
Even in the United States, where new tariffs have rattled the car industry, sales rose by 2.7% to 193,000 cars.
This was likely since BMW has not yet passed on the additional costs resulting from the tariffs to its customers.

Mini builds up steam

Sales at the core BMW brand performed slightly worse, falling by 2.3% to 1.07 million vehicles. BMW M GmbH sales were up +6.5%, with over 100,000 cars sold in the half-year period from January to June for the first time, marking BMW M GmbH’s most successful half-year ever.

This was offset by a significant increase in Mini sales, reaching just under 134,000 cars following the renewal of the brand’s portfolio. The full availability of the new Mini family was reflected in the first half of the year, with a total of 133,778 vehicles sold, resulting in strong year-on-year growth of +17.3% for the brand.

Mini grew in all regions worldwide and also posted growth in the Chinese market in the first half of the year. Mini’s fully electric models experienced strong global demand and were the brand’s primary growth driver. In the first half of the year, more than one in three MINIs sold worldwide were BEVs.

The Rolls-Royce brand increased its sales by +9.4% year-on-year in the second quarter. In the first half of the year, the brand delivered 2,796 vehicles (-0.8%). In the first six months of 2025, BMW Motorrad sold 105,909 motorcycles and scooters to customers (-6.3%).

EV sales growth

The BMW Group delivered 111,027 BEVs in the second quarter, slightly more than in the first quarter (109,516 BEVs). After the whole first half of the year, BMW Group’s BEV sales counter stands at 220,540 vehicles (+15.7%), compared to 190,622 in the same period last year. However, growth is slowing.

That is because the 109,516 electric cars in the first quarter represented a sales increase of 32.4%,  while the 111,027 new electric cars from BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce in Q2/2025 mark only a 2.9% increase over the same quarter last year. The 220,540 electric cars represent an 18.3% share in the first half of the year, with Q2 alone accounting for 17.9%.

It will be interesting to see what results the BMW Group achieves in the third and fourth quarters: was Q2 merely a blip or the beginning of a new phase? Another factor that may be at play is that customers are looking out for the new generation of electric cars (‘Neue Klasse’) and postponing their purchases.

Deliveries of electrified vehicles by the BMW Group rose by 18.5% in the first half to 318,949 units. BMW classifies ‘electrified’ as battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, but not other (mild) hybrids. This results in 98,409 plug-in hybrids in the first half. Of these, 98,339 units carried the BMW badge, so virtually all.

For the BMW brand, 272,402 electrified vehicles included 174,063 electric cars. Thus, the Munich-based carmaker delivered almost 100,000 more BEVs than Mercedes: the Stuttgart-based competitor reported 75,700 electric vehicles for Mercedes-Benz Cars.

Audi reported 101,400 electric cars delivered after the first half. BMW thus handed over almost as many electric vehicles to customers as the other two German premium manufacturers combined.

“In the second quarter, we also achieved an important milestone, with the delivery of our 1.5-millionth fully-electric vehicle,” said Jochen Goller, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Customer, Brands, Sales.

“This success underlines once again how the BMW Group has evolved from an electric pioneer to one of the leading players in the BEV market, now offering more than 15 fully-electric models,” he concluded.