BMW is reportedly postponing the introduction of its agency sales model in Germany until mid-2028, more than two years later than originally planned.
That seems strange, as BMW continues to insist that the same model is working successfully at MINI. The explanation may be that MINI demonstrated both the potential and the complexity of taking control of the entire car-sale process.
German BMW dealers were reportedly informed in August that the brand will not switch to the agency model before 1 July 2028. BMW has not officially confirmed the date, but has acknowledged that the broader European rollout will begin in phases from mid-2027. Poland and Sweden are expected to be among the first BMW markets to make the switch.
That is quite a delay. When BMW announced its new European sales strategy in 2023, MINI was to lead the way from January 2024, followed by the BMW brand from 2026. MINI has meanwhile made the transition across much of Europe, including Belgium on 1 October 2024.
Who actually sells you the car?
The difference sounds technical but fundamentally changes the relationship between manufacturer and dealer.
Under today’s traditional BMW dealer model, the dealer buys cars from BMW, owns or finances its stock and subsequently sells the car to the customer in its own name and at its own commercial risk.
The dealer has a margin between its purchase price and the price the customer pays. That also gives it room to negotiate discounts, trade-ins or packages to close a deal.
Under a genuine agency model, BMW sells the car directly to you. The local BMW showroom remains, as do the salesperson, test drive, advice and delivery, but legally the dealer has become BMW’s agent.
BMW owns the stock, sets the transaction price and invoices the customer, while the agent receives a predetermined commission.
No more shopping around
For customers, one visible consequence is that shopping around between three BMW dealers for a bigger discount becomes largely pointless. Identical cars should carry the same national price. BMW sees that as greater transparency; customers fond of negotiating may call it less competition.
For dealers, the trade-off is equally significant. They surrender pricing freedom and part of their entrepreneurial margin, but no longer have to finance millions of euros worth of new-car inventory or bear the risk of being stuck with the wrong cars. BMW Group originally argued that this should give retailers greater financial predictability.
The biggest winner strategically, however, may be BMW itself. Instead of selling a car to a dealer and losing visibility over the final transaction, the manufacturer owns the customer relationship, the transaction price, the stock and much of the resulting customer data. It also becomes much easier to connect online configuration and ordering with the physical showroom.
But MINI works, BMW says
That makes BMW’s repeated postponements intriguing because it continues to defend the concept. Only last week, BMW told British trade publication Car Dealer that MINI’s introduction had proven that its agency model is effective and benefits customers, retailers and the BMW Group.
MINI’s sales figures certainly do not suggest commercial disaster. The brand sold 288,290 cars worldwide in 2025, up 17.7%, while electric MINI sales surged almost 88% to 105,535 units.
Yet MINI’s rollout also exposed how complicated direct sales can become behind the scenes. German trade publication Automobilwoche reported in 2025 that some buying scenarios were initially missing from BMW’s IT systems.
Purchases by self-employed customers required manual solutions, while certain large corporate orders could not initially be processed correctly. Dealers described processes that had looked simple on paper but proved much more complicated in daily business.
That is manageable with MINI. It becomes considerably more dangerous with BMW, which sells far higher volumes and has much greater exposure to leasing, fleets, company cars, and complex corporate purchasing structures.
In that sense, MINI may not have disproved BMW’s agency strategy at all. It may simply have done exactly what BMW intended: act as a real-world test bed before the system is multiplied across the much larger BMW network.
The agency revolution is losing momentum
BMW also has less reason to hurry than it did three years ago. The agency model was once portrayed as the inevitable future of European car retail, combining Tesla-like control of prices and customers with the established dealer network. That enthusiasm has cooled considerably.
Stellantis suspended the wider European rollout of its agency system in 2025, retaining it only in countries where it had already been introduced, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and the Netherlands.
Volkswagen has since decided to return private EV customers across Europe to the conventional dealer model, while retaining agency sales for fleets.
Even the European Commission concluded this year that traditional selective dealership distribution remains by far the dominant model.
Its study found that 58% of surveyed vehicle manufacturers used traditional distribution, compared with 27% using agency structures. Around 92% of European car sales in 2024 still went through authorized dealerships, while several manufacturers were slowing or reconsidering agency rollouts.
BMW remains committed
BMW nevertheless insists it remains committed. The company says the BMW brand will begin transitioning in European markets from mid-2027, despite Germany apparently waiting another year.
There may also be some convenient timing involved. BMW is currently undertaking one of the largest product renewals in its history, centered on the Neue Klasse.
Adding a fundamental change to ordering, pricing, invoicing, stock and dealer IT while dozens of new and updated models arrive would add another layer of risk.
So the latest postponement does not necessarily mean BMW has lost faith in agency sales. But every extra year gives the company more time to observe competitors retreating from exactly the sales revolution that, only a few years ago, appeared inevitable.
By 2028, the bigger question may therefore no longer be whether BMW is ready for the agency model, but whether it still considers it worth introducing.
