BMW will begin offering severance packages to employees willing to leave, creating a formal route toward a reduction reportedly targeting about 8,000 jobs.
The program will cover white-collar employees in Germany, including staff working in administration, research, development, planning, and management. Production workers will not be included, according to BMW.
BMW confirmed that “several thousand” jobs would be eliminated through the voluntary program by the end of 2027. Reuters reported that the company expects its overall workforce to shrink by around 8,000, citing a person familiar with the matter.
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The Wall Street Journal separately reported that the severance offer will begin in October 2026 and continue through the end of 2027. The program was agreed upon with BMW’s works council following six weeks of negotiations.
The program changes how BMW intends to deliver a workforce reduction that was already included in its 2026 planning. In June, BMW said its global headcount could decline by as much as 5% by the end of the year. With 154,540 employees at the end of 2025, that projection represented approximately 7,700 positions.
At the time, BMW said the reduction would continue primarily through natural attrition rather than layoffs, according to an earlier Reuters report.
Voluntary severance remains distinct from compulsory layoffs because employees must choose to participate. It nevertheless gives BMW a financial incentive it can use to accelerate departures rather than waiting for workers to retire or resign.
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BMW formalized the program after sharply reducing its 2026 financial outlook. On June 16, the company cut its expected automotive operating margin to between 1% and 3%, down from an earlier range of 4% to 6%. It also lowered its expected return on capital employed to between 1% and 5% from 6% to 10%.
The German automaker now expects group profit before tax to decline significantly in 2026. Automotive free cash flow is projected to remain above €2.5 billion.
The company attributed the revision to deteriorating conditions in China, intensified competition across the Asia-Pacific region, higher energy costs, and weaker consumer confidence linked to instability in the Middle East. BMW said stronger sales in Europe and the United States were insufficient to offset the decline in China.
The automaker also warned that accelerated structural and efficiency measures would create a one-time earnings charge during the second half of 2026.
CEO Milan Nedeljković told employees that the underlying rules of the automotive industry had changed, according to a participant at a Munich staff meeting cited by Reuters. He said the measures were necessary to make BMW more profitable.
The company is simultaneously rolling out its Neue Klasse vehicle architecture and plans to introduce more than 40 new or updated models by 2027. That product program requires continued spending on electric vehicles, software, batteries, and manufacturing systems even as pressure grows to reduce existing structural costs.
