In the third quarter of this year, the BMW Group delivered 551,072 cars, down 6.3% from Q3 last year. In contrast, the group sold 110,257 all-electric cars worldwide, up 7.2% year on year.
Sales grew significantly in Europe and Germany. However, in the first nine months, the electric-vehicle balance sheet still showed a deficit.
In the first nine months of 2026, BMW Group sold 1,707,799 cars, 4.9% fewer than in 2025. Of these, 314,552 were fully electric, down 2.7% from the previous year.
Problem China
By region, China is the problem. In China, 114,355 cars were sold in Q3, a whopping 24.3% decline from last year. In the first nine months, sales fell 21.8% to 367,128 cars. All European brands in China face the same negative figures, and that won’t change soon: the overall Chinese market has declined by almost one-fourth.
In Europe, BMW and Mini sales rose 2.7% in Q3 and 4.5% in the first nine months; in Germany, figures were also positive: +2.7% and +7.5%, respectively, and the same story held in the US: +2.5% and +3.4%, respectively. In the rest of the world, sales declined by approximately 10% overall.
Growth in BEV sales
Overall, the Munich-based group has significantly increased its BEV deliveries (by 7.2%) between July and September compared to the same period last year. This reverses the trend seen in the first half of 2026, when BEV deliveries were 7.4% lower than in the first half of 2025.
Relative to total deliveries across all powertrains, BEVs accounted for 20% of deliveries in Q3 2026. In other words, between July and September, BMW delivered one in five passenger cars as a BEV. For the current year, the share from January to September stands at 18.4%.
The BEV business developed particularly strongly in Europe. There, the BMW Group delivered 81,941 fully electric vehicles in the third quarter, a 37.5% increase.
In Germany, BEV deliveries increased by 38.5%. As a result, more than one in three vehicles the BMW Group delivered in Europe was a BEV: the BEV share in the third quarter was 34.7%. These figures include the BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce brands.
The Mini brand also contributed significantly to the BEV business: total deliveries rose 6.8% in the first nine months to 220,247 vehicles. Fully electric models (Aceman Electric, Cooper Electric, Countryman Electric) accounted for 37.2% of deliveries.
Although the BMW Group does not provide absolute figures, this roughly translates to around 82,000 BEVs from Mini in the first three quarters of the year. Thus, electric powertrains already account for a significant portion of Mini’s deliveries.
High demand for iX3
“In difficult market conditions, we were able to hold our own in Europe and the US. The continued strength in new orders for our fully electric vehicles, in particular, confirms our course,” said Jochen Goller, Board Member for Sales.
“The BMW iX3 is providing positive impetus for growth in the market, and we are also seeing strong customer interest in the new BMW 3 Series and BMW X5. The product momentum generated by our Neue Klasse models and Neue Klasse technologies strengthens our position for the challenges ahead,” he added.
BMW expects its Neue Klasse electric platform to boost further its BEV business, introduced this year with the BMW iX3. The iX3 alone has received more than 100,000 orders in Europe within a year.
The sister model, the fully electric SUV coupé iX4, has just been unveiled. In November, BMW is also set to introduce the Chinese version of the new iX3, aiming to reverse the trend there. Additionally, BMW has just launched the electric i3 sedan.
The German competition
Compared to other German automakers, BMW’s global BEV share of 20% is high. At the Volkswagen Group, only one in eight vehicles delivered in Q3 was a BEV. While the group’s BEV deliveries in Europe rose 19.6%, they fell 4.7% worldwide.
At Mercedes-Benz, the company made serious progress compared to last year, but the BEV share in the passenger car business remained 16.8% in the third quarter, meaning one in six vehicles was a full-time BEV. The Stuttgart-based company sold 68,400 fully electric passenger cars worldwide, up 61% from the same period last year.
