{"id":85402,"date":"2026-04-28T14:55:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85402"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:55:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:55:02","slug":"bmw-xdrive-share-germany-q1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85402","title":{"rendered":"Over 60% of BMWs Sold in Germany Now Have All-Wheel Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 60% of new BMWs registered in Germany in the first quarter of 2026 came with xDrive. That\u2019s the first time the brand has cleared that line, and at this rate the two-thirds mark isn\u2019t far off. A year ago the figure was 54.9%. The trend had looked like it was leveling out around 50% \u2014 turns out it wasn\u2019t. For context: Audi sold nearly 10,000 fewer Quattro units in the same period and sits at 49.5% AWD penetration. Mercedes is lower, at 44.7% for 4Matic.<\/p>\n

The obvious explanation for BMW\u2019s success is the X-series SUVs, where rear-wheel drive isn\u2019t even available in Germany anymore. The xDrive rate there is around 80%. But passenger cars now tell a similar story: 41.9% of BMW\u2019s sedan and coupe registrations go out the door with all-wheel drive. The shift isn\u2019t just SUV buyers hedging against winter roads.<\/p>\n

In 2009, xDrive was on fewer than 1 in 6 BMWs sold in Germany (14.9%). By Q1 2026 it\u2019s 60.2% \u2014 a fourfold increase over 17 years. The only real pause came around 2014\u20132016, where growth stalled between 34\u201336%. That coincides with a period when fuel prices were falling and there was less pressure on buyers to justify the AWD premium. The 2021\u20132022 jump to 53% was the first time xDrive crossed the majority threshold \u2014 and it held there, suggesting it wasn\u2019t a fluke of one particular model year or launch cycle.<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/a><\/p>\n

At the model level, the 8 Series numbers are telling the full story. One customer in Q1 bought a rear-drive 840i. Every other 8 or M8 buyer chose xDrive. In the 5 Series, 61% went all-wheel drive. In the 3 Series, nearly half did. Some of this reflects genuine customer preference. Some of it reflects the fact that BMW has removed rear-drive options from many of its higher-output variants, so buyers who want the performance spec have no real decision to make. The 7 Series facelift (G70 LCI) follows the pattern \u2014 the rear-drive i7 eDrive50 is discontinued, its slot taken by the i7 50 xDrive.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s quietly changed is how BMW talks about it. The Neue Klasse iX3<\/a> and i3 don\u2019t carry xDrive badges anywhere on the body. The facelifted 7 Series drops the badge too in some markets (the U.S. retains it).<\/p>\n

The headliner for later this year is the BMW M2 M xDrive<\/a> \u2014 the first M compact sport car with four driven wheels. The M xDrive system runs rear-biased and includes a full rear-wheel-drive mode, which matters if you\u2019re the kind of M2 buyer who\u2019d otherwise be skeptical. Whether that\u2019s enough to win them over is another question.<\/p>\n

[Source: BimmerToday<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 60% of new BMWs registered in Germany in the first quarter of 2026 came with xDrive. That\u2019s the first time the brand has cleared that line, and at this rate the two-thirds mark isn\u2019t far off. A year ago the figure was 54.9%. The trend had looked like it was leveling out around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85403,"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-85402","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\/85402","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=85402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}