The German carmaker BMW plans to cut approximately 8,000 jobs worldwide by 2027 as part of a cost-cutting program. This was reported by the DPA news agency, citing company sources.
According to the agency, the reduction of the workforce in Germany will be carried out through natural turnover, as well as through a voluntary redundancy program with compensation. The voluntary redundancy program is planned to last from October 2026 to the end of 2027. It applies to all employees in Germany who are not directly involved in production. Since more than half of BMW's nearly 154,000 employees work in Germany (just over 84,000 in the first half of the year) and it is there that the compensation program is being launched, it is likely that more than half of the positions permanently cut will be in German plants.
The compensation program in Germany, as DPA notes, will not be selective. It is open to all employees outside the production sector - a total of several tens of thousands of people. The exact cost of the job cuts for BMW remains unclear. These costs will probably not be reflected in the financial statements until the second half of the year.
In June, during a conference call with capital market participants, CFO Walter Mertl indicated that the restructuring would result in one-off costs of approximately 1 billion euros. However, it remained unclear whether all of this amount would be used exclusively for staff reductions. The size of the planned savings was also not initially disclosed.
For a long time, BMW remained the last major German automaker to avoid large-scale job cuts. Last year, major automakers such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche announced staff reductions. Volkswagen is also discussing a second wave of layoffs. BMW's workforce reductions began even before the announcement of the current program: between mid-2025 and mid-2026, the workforce has already been cut by approximately 2,000 people. The annual forecast for 2026 also initially included a slight reduction.
The German automotive industry has been experiencing a crisis in recent years, initially caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but intensified since 2022 due to the sharp rise in energy prices and increased competition from Chinese automakers. This is compounded by US tariffs and the impact of the Middle East crisis on the global economy.