{"id":83671,"date":"2025-09-15T07:47:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T11:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83671"},"modified":"2025-09-15T07:47:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T11:47:37","slug":"bmw-claims-no-bad-cars-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83671","title":{"rendered":"BMW Claims ‘There Are No Bad Cars In China’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese cars have evolved from being the laughingstock of the industry to becoming worthy adversaries for legacy brands. And BMW probably knows that better than anyone. Looking at the sales numbers, it\u2019s safe to say the company isn\u2019t doing great in China. Last year, deliveries fell 13% to 715,200 units, causing the share in global deliveries to drop from 32.3% to 29.2%. Despite the slump, China remained the brand\u2019s largest individual market. However, the first half of 2025 hasn\u2019t been any better. Through June, demand dropped 15.5% to 318,125 cars.<\/p>\n

The silver lining for BMW is that it can partially offset the decline in China with stronger sales in Europe. Since 2022, deliveries on the Continent have steadily increased, reaching 948,500 units last year. 2025 is shaping up to be another strong year, with half-year results showing an 8.2% jump to 498,670 cars. With these numbers, it\u2019s no surprise the company\u2019s sales boss isn\u2019t too worried about competition from Chinese automakers in Europe.<\/p>\n

Jochen Goller told Autocar<\/em> that low prices and EV incentives drive the growth of Chinese car companies locally. However, he believes these newcomers won\u2019t achieve the same success in Europe because taxes and tariffs will push their prices higher.<\/p>\n

Beyond higher prices, Goller also pointed out that customer preferences differ. Chinese buyers want \u201csmartphones on wheels,\u201d whereas Europeans aren\u2019t as focused on digitalization. Nevertheless, the new iDrive X infotainment shows BMW is leaning heavily into tech-laden cars to lure in Chinese buyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BMW is far from ignoring the meteoric rise of Chinese brands. As a member of the Board of Management responsible for Customer, Brands, and Sales, Goller drew parallels between the rise of Chinese automakers and how Japanese and later Korean brands gradually captured market share. He made clear BMW isn\u2019t underestimating the challenge:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOf course, they will occupy a certain market share; whether it\u2019s 10% or 15%, it will happen. We definitely don\u2019t take the Chinese lightly: they build good cars. There are no bad cars in China.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how is BMW fighting back in the world\u2019s largest car market? By rolling out region-specific products. The Neue Klasse era will begin next year with a long-wheelbase iX3 \u201cNA6,\u201d already teased<\/a>, followed by an i3 \u201cNA8.\u201d The latter will replace the car featured here. It\u2019s a long-wheelbase, CLAR-based electric 3 Series Sedan \u201cG28\u201d sold in China since 2022, when the global i3 hatchback was dropped.<\/p>\n

BMW is even designing these China-focused products locally at the new Designworks Shanghai Studio<\/a>, allowing for greater differentiation beyond just a stretched wheelbase. The firm is still betting on LWB models for the local market, as rear legroom remains a key priority for buyers.<\/p>\n

Source: Autocar (subscription required)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese cars have evolved from being the laughingstock of the industry to becoming worthy adversaries for legacy brands. And BMW probably knows that better than anyone. Looking at the sales numbers, it\u2019s safe to say the company isn\u2019t doing great in China. Last year, deliveries fell 13% to 715,200 units, causing the share in global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}