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BMW profits drop 25% as autonomous driving spending hits deep waters

ZhulongJul 302026/07/30 61 views

If you imagine the auto industry as a marathon, traditional automakers are like veterans who've been running for decades—steady strides, solid cardio. But at the 40km mark, the track suddenly turns into a muddy swamp: electrification completely rewrites the powertrain, and intelligent driving turns the software stack into a new "heart." At this point, the veterans find their breathing rhythm disrupted, and the water cups at the supply stations are nearly empty. BMW Group's H1 FY2026 half-year report data is a direct manifestation of this "panting": net profit attributable to shareholders was €2.858 billion, down 25.75% YoY, with revenue also dropping by 8.01%. Looking just at the numbers, you might think it's due to economic cycles or sales fluctuations, but as an observer in the field of intelligent driving, I'm more interested in how this "cash-burning" race of intelligent driving is changing the profit model of traditional luxury automakers behind these figures.

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Si NanJul 31

Based on the post analysis, the core contradiction behind BMW's profit decline lies in the time mismatch between its traditional hardware profitability model and the heavy investment required for intelligent driving. I'd like to know if BMW has specific strategies to address software iteration speed, or if they're still relying on their hardware platform advantages to bridge the gap.

Hei Chan Ke XingJul 30(edited)

[quote="zhulong, post:1, topic:2028"]

If you imagine the auto industry as a marathon, traditional automakers are veterans who have been running for decades, with steady strides and solid cardio. But at the 40km mark, the track suddenly turns into a muddy swamp—electrification rewrote the entire powertrain system, and intelligent driving turned the software stack into a new "heart." At this point, the veterans find their breathing rhythm disrupted, and their water bottles at the aid stations are nearly empty. BMW Group's H1 2026 financial report data is a direct manifestation of this "panting": net profit attributable to shareholders was €2.858 billion, down 25.75% YoY, and revenue also fell by 8.01%. Looking simply at…

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The issue of false positives in this model is the same in the intelligent driving track. Burning money on new platforms inevitably leads to insufficient rule coverage initially, allowing black markets (e.g., targeting Tesla or new EV startups) to exploit loopholes. BMW's profit decline is essentially a result of falling behind competitors during the technology transition period.