BMW Brilliance Automotive has initiated a workforce reduction in China, affecting approximately 1,800 employees as of November 2, 2026. This figure represents about 10% of the total staff at the joint venture. The cuts impact both production-line and administrative roles, primarily at the company's headquarters in Shenyang.
The company is offering a severance package structured as N+5, where N is based on the pre-tax monthly salary and the additional component is based on the base salary. This move follows a period of reduced hiring and contract non-renewals over the past three years. BMW has not released an official statement regarding these specific layoffs.
The restructuring in China coincides with a global reduction plan at BMW Group, which aims to cut approximately 8,000 positions, or 5% of its 154,000-strong global workforce. While the Chinese cuts focus on production staff, the German program targets administrative, R&D, and project planning roles.
BMW faces financial pressure, reporting a 29.4% year-over-year decline in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2026. The automotive segment's EBIT margin dropped to 3.6%, falling short of the 8% to 10% target. Global deliveries for the first three quarters of 2026 fell by 4.9% to 1.71 million vehicles.
The Chinese market remains challenging for the brand, with deliveries of BMW and Mini vehicles dropping 21.8% to 376,000 units in the first nine months of 2026. China's share of BMW's global sales has decreased from 32.3% in 2023 to 25.4% in 2025. BMW holds a 75% stake in the Brilliance joint venture.
