BMW stays profitable as drivers embrace electric cars

The BMW Group shared its financial results for 2025, proving that the famous German automaker can still make billions of euros while moving toward a greener future. Even though the car world faced some tough challenges - new taxes on traded goods and a cooling market in China - BMW stayed on its path. The company earned more than $12 billion before taxes last year. After paying all their bills and taxes, they still had over $8 billion in profit.

A big reason for this success is how BMW handles electric cars. Instead of only making one type of powertrain, they build a mix of everything. They offer traditional gas engines, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric EVs. In 2025, the company sold 442,056 fully electric cars. That is a 3.6% increase from the year before. Now, one out of every six BMWs sold is powered only by a battery. If you look at the MINI brand, the numbers are even more impressive - one out of every three MINIs sold is now an electric car.

BMW reached some huge milestones in 2025. Since they started making cars like the i3 over ten years ago, the company has now sold 1.5 million fully electric cars. If you count hybrids too, they have sold 3 million electrified vehicles. The company is not slowing down either. By the end of 2026, they plan to have 20 different electric models available for customers to buy. This variety helps them keep sales high in places like Europe and the Americas.

The company is also preparing for a new era called the "Neue Klasse" - their next generation of electric technology and design. The first model in this group is the new BMW iX3. It is already a hit in Europe. In fact, one out of every three pre-orders for electric BMWs is for this specific SUV. Because so many people want it, the factory in Hungary is now working two shifts to keep up. Next week, the company will show off the design for another new model, the electric BMW i3 sedan.

Even though BMW is focused on the future, they still care about their classic performance cars. The BMW M division had its best year ever. They sold 213,449 cars in 2025. The most popular ones were the M2 Coupé and the M3. For the first time, one out of every ten BMWs sold was an M model. It turns out that even fans of fast cars are moving toward electricity, with models like the i5 and iX2 helping push those record-breaking numbers.

The luxury brand Rolls-Royce, which is part of the BMW Group, also did well. They delivered 5,664 cars to very wealthy customers. People especially liked the Cullinan SUV and the Spectre - the first fully electric Rolls. Meanwhile, the MINI brand grew by nearly 18% last year. They sold over 288,000 cars, and the new electric MINI Cooper and the MINI Aceman were a big part of that growth. Over 36% of all MINIs sold last year were fully electric.

Running a global car company is expensive, but BMW managed its money carefully. They spent about $9.72 billion on research and development. Most of that money went toward making cars more digital and improving their electric batteries. They also worked hard to lower their costs by $2.93 billion. This helped them keep their profit margins steady even when they had to pay extra for parts or deal with changing currency values. They even managed to beat the European Union's strict rules for exhaust emissions without using any tricks.

BMW expects things to stay fairly stable next year. They think the car markets in the United States and Europe will grow a little bit. But they know there will be more challenges, like higher taxes on imports and lower prices for used cars. Because of these factors, they think their profit might drop a bit next year as they are moving forward with 40 new or updated models coming out by 2027.

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