BMW sticks to 2025 outlook, but warns US tariffs will bite this quarter

[FRANKFURT] German premium carmaker BMW on Wednesday (May 7) confirmed its 2025 outlook and said it expected some of US tariffs on car imports to decline from July, but warned the duties will have a “notable” second-quarter impact on its business.

“The geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty has reached a level we have rarely seen before,” BMW’s chief financial officer Walter Mertl told journalists during a first-quarter earnings call, adding that the carmaker was “closely monitoring” the impact on consumer sentiment.

Most of BMW’s rivals, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Stellantis, have all pulled their 2025 forecasts, saying it was too difficult to come up with proper guidance in light of far-reaching import tariffs in the United States, the world’s second-biggest auto market.

But BMW said its 2025 outlook provided in March that had factored in all tariffs announced up to that point, still stood. The carmaker has forecast earnings before tax on par with 2024 and an operating margin at its automotive segment of 5-7 per cent.

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

Shares in the company were indicated to open 2 per cent higher, also supported by better-than-expected first-quarter EBIT of 2.02 billion euros (S$2.96 billion) at its auto unit, which came in above the 1.85 billion LSEG poll of banks and brokerages.

Citing strong orders and cost discipline, the unit’s operating margin reached 6.9 per cent, down from the 8.8 per cent in the same period of last year, but beating the 6.3 per cent LSEG poll forecast.

BMW still included the caveat that its actual business performance may deviate if tariffs increase or remain in place for longer than anticipated, also flagging the risk of potential supply bottlenecks for specific parts or raw materials. REUTERS