BMW Continues To Project That Some Auto Tariffs Will Decrease Starting In July

German premium carmaker BMW has reaffirmed its 2025 outlook, saying it expects some tariffs imposed on vehicle imports to fall from July, one of the industry’s most optimistic outlooks.

Most of BMW’s competitors, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Stellantis, have withdrawn their forecasts for 2025, saying it is too difficult to provide proper guidance given far-reaching import tariffs in the United States, the world’s second-largest auto market.

Meanwhile, BMW said its March 2025 forecasts, which included all previously announced tariffs, still stand, predicting pre-tax earnings at the previous year’s level and an operating margin in the automotive segment of 5-7%.

BMW said that while it can only estimate the potential impact of tariffs in the current year based on certain assumptions, it expects “some of the tariff increases to be temporary, with reductions from July 2025.”

This will be helped by its automotive unit’s better-than-expected first-quarter EBIT of 2.02 billion euros ($2.3 billion), which was above 1.85 billion euros in an LSEG survey of banks and brokerages.

Citing strong orders and cost discipline, the unit’s operating margin came in at 6.9%, down from 8.8% in the same period last year but beating the 6.3% forecast in an LSEG survey.

BMW did include a warning, however, that its actual business results could deviate if tariffs increase or remain in place longer than anticipated. It also pointed to the risk of potential bottlenecks in the supply of certain parts or raw materials.

The most important region for global sales of BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce vehicles in the first quarter of 2025 was the home continent of Europe. Due to the weakness of the Chinese market, the European markets managed to overtake Asia. Specifically, sales of 242,183 units were achieved in Europe (+6.2%), 214,814 units in Asia (-12.2%), and 114,718 units in the Americas (+5.3%). The largest individual markets remained unchanged: China (155,341), the USA (94,970), and Germany (58,464).

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