BMW: New jobs in Leipzig - but carmaker is keeping a low profile on plans for Bavarian locations  

Due to the great demand for its models of the 1 and 2 series, BMW wants to create new jobs at the Leipzig plant.

• BMW wants to use the red pencil when it comes to personnel costs.
• The situation is different at the BMW plant in Leipzig .
• Due to successful new models , the group now needs additional staff at its site in Saxony .

Update from August 19, 12.42 p.m. - BMW wants to create 300 new jobs at the Leipzig plant . The new employees are to be used for simple training activities in final assembly, said a BMW spokesman for Merkur.de *. Because it is not yet foreseeable how the markets will develop in the face of the corona pandemic, plans are “currently with external temporary workers”, it said.

Among other things, BMW builds the 1 and 2 series in Leipzig as coupé, gran coupé and convertible. Both series are still relatively young and in great demand. 

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The company initially left it open whether BMW would also use temporary workers at its Bavarian production sites. In the Bavarian plants they are mostly still in the usual production interruptions, it is said from the BMW headquarters. When it comes to personnel, you drive “on sight” at the locations. 

In view of the corona pandemic, BMW has launched a strict austerity program. In the current year, the group is cutting property, plant and equipment by a good third to just under four billion euros. In addition, the personnel costs should decrease. By the end of next year, the company plans to cut 6,000 jobs across the group through natural fluctuation and severance payments.

BMW: Corona case at the Leipzig plant - 20 employees had to be quarantined - Now the results are there  

Update August 12, 14:51: An employee in the BMW -Werk Leipzig had voluntarily after returning from vacation last week Corona get tested. The test was positive. The Bavarian car manufacturer immediately quarantined the affected employee. The 20 or so colleagues who had contact with the person returning from vacation were also sent to the home office. They were also tested for Corona.

Now the results are in. "All tests turned out negative, " said a BMW spokesman on Wednesday when asked by Merkur.de *. The employees could therefore go back to the factory immediately. The infected colleague is also "doing well". But he will stay at home for the time being, said the spokesman.

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BMW is now retiring sports car icon - "collector potential"

Update from August 10, 11.42 a.m.: The Munich carmaker BMW is sending a sports car icon into retirement. At the end of June, the last 18 BMW i8s rolled off the assembly line at the BMW plant in Leipzig. The series was only launched in 2014. Now it's finally over. The vehicles were handed over to the owners on Friday (August 7th) in the BMW World in Munich, a spokeswoman told Merkur.de *.

BMW had given the last customer of its iconic e-runabout a few extras. This included special paintwork in "Austin yellow, British Racing Green" or "Le Mans blue" or individual trim strips and panels. In addition, the vehicles have all been numbered and thus have “collector potential”, said the group in a press release.

The i8 is the "world's most successful sports car with electric drive in the company's history". The i8 with the plug-in hybrid has secured a place in the “Hall of Fame” of automotive history, it was said.

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New corona case at BMW: After the loss message - now employees also have to be in quarantine

Update from August 7th, 9:52 a.m.: Corona * at BMW:A BMW employee in the Leipzig plant immediately informed his employer of the test result on Wednesday evening, a spokesman told Merkur.de *. Therefore, the affected employee was immediately quarantined. The colleagues with whom the employee was in contact were also identified on Wednesday evening and were sent "prophylactically" to the home office. They would now also be “tested for Corona as a precaution”.

BMW: No production interruption in Leipzig

The total of around 20 affected BMW employees worked “all in administration”. The production was "in no way" affected by the Corona case, it said. Similar to most other companies, BMW also has a set procedure for possible corona cases. In addition to the immediate determination of possible contact persons of corona infected people, it also includes the blocking of the employee ID.

BMW builds the 1 Series, the 2 Series and the i3 in Leipzig. Around 1,000 vehicles roll off the assembly line every day. First, the Leipziger Volkszeitung reported on the case.

BMW rushes into the red: loss worse than feared - Audi hit hard too

Update from August 6, 2020, 12:22 p.m.: Munich - The corona pandemic is also making the German premium manufacturers Audi , BMW and Mercedes-Benz difficult. A look at the figures for the first half of the year shows that. After that, the sales of all three German luxury class manufacturers slumped from January to June by 22 to 23 percent each.

The declines in sales were also bitter. While Mercedes-Benz including Vans got away with a minus of almost 15 percent in the first half of the year, the revenues of the BMW Group with its brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce slumped by a good 21 percent. The biggest slump was here at Audi. From January to June the sales of the VW subsidiary collapsed by almost 29 percent.

BMW: Bayern lagged behind in terms of operating profit in the first half of the year

When it comes to the operating result in the first half of the year, however, BMW is at the bottom. In the first half of the year it was enough to generate an operating profit of 709 million euros across the group. But in the core segment of automobiles, the Munich-based carmaker posted a loss of 1.325 million euros as of June 30th. That is almost as much as Audi (minus 750 million euros) and Mercedes-Benz (minus 615 million) lost together in the first half of the year.

BMW rushes into the red: loss worse than feared - drastic slump in the premium segment

Update from August 5, 2020, 11:15 a.m.: The Bavarian car manufacturer BMW expects a drastic drop in sales in the luxury class segment for the current year. "Worldwide we expect a decline in sales of almost 20 percent," said BMW CFO Nicolas Peter on Wednesday in a conference call with journalists.

For itself, the BMW Group expects sales in the current year to be “well below the previous year”. In BMW terminology, this means a minus of over ten percent. In the previous year, the group had delivered a total of 2.538 million BMW , MINI and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles worldwide and thus achieved another sales record.

BMW sees the first bright spots in July

Update of August 5, 2020 10:17:  The BMW Group is looking after a loss in the second quarter more confident in the second half. Group-wide sales in July were “well above the previous year”, said BMW boss Oliver Zipse in a conference call with journalists on Wednesday morning.

In Germany, for example, the reduction in VAT has a positive effect . The group also saw strong demand in its home market for e-cars from the BMW and MINI brands. In the case of electric vehicles, sales figures were "more than 50 percent above the previous year," said Zipse. The trend is also up in China . However, the 3-series model change in China in July 2019 also played a role, said Zipse.  

BMW rushes into the red - loss worse than feared

Update from August 5, 2020, 7:59 a.m.: From April to June, BMW sales fell by 22.3 percent to 19.97 billion euros. Operationally showed the groupa loss of 666 million euros after a profit of 2.2 billion euros in the previous year. This put BMW yetbelow the analyst forecasts. The experts had only expected an average loss of 410 million euros.

In the USA and Europe in particular , the group recently had to cope with significant sales declines due to the corona pandemic. There sales collapsed by a good third in the second quarter. In China , however, business has since picked up again.

BMW boss Oliver Zipse cautiously optimistic for the second half of the year

For the second half of the year, however , BMW expects a slight improvement. "We are looking ahead to the second half of the year with cautious confidence," said BMW boss Oliver Zipse according to the press release. 

Similar to many other car manufacturers, the production lines at BMW were temporarily shut down in the spring due to the corona pandemic. Most of the car dealerships also had to close. The corona crisis hits the entire industry with great force. Volkswagen had to cope with an operational loss of 2.4 billion euros in the second quarter. At Daimler, the minus amounted to 1.7 billion euros.

Despite a significant market decline following the corona pandemic we were able to achieve a positive profit before tax of € 498 million in the first half year.

Read more here: https://t.co/DYDzuuY6AE#BMWGroup pic.twitter.com/gd7t29TWGN

In light of developments, all manufacturers are now feverishly looking for ways to reduce their costs. BMW wants to cut 6,000 jobs. In addition, investments in property, plant and equipment are to be reduced by around a third to less than four billion euros. However, the group intends to maintain its investments in research and development almost unchanged.

BMW before the quarterly figures: Serious situation - expert believes in mega-loss

First report August 4, 4:36 p.m.: The economic consequences of the corona pandemic have also hit the Munich-based car maker BMW hard. The group will publish its interim results for the second quarter on Wednesday. Analysts expect that the group has rushed deep into the red.

The Munich car manufacturer BMW * is actually spoiled for success. In the past few years, the group has reliably increased sales, revenue and earnings, one record year after the other.

But in the Corona year 2020 everything is different. Instead of new extra shifts and employment records, BMW is producing in one-shift operation and wants to cut a total of 6,000 jobs. It would be the first downsizing in over a decade.

But the order situation is no longer good at the moment. In the first half of the year, sales of the group brands BMW , MINI * and Rolls-Royce * plummeted by 23 percent to 963,000. While China has recently recovered to some extent, the USA and Europe saw a slump in sales of around 29 percent (USA) and 32 percent, respectively.

BMW: Analysts expect red numbers for the second quarter

Tomorrow, Wednesday, should show how serious the situation is. Then the company publishes the figures for the second quarter and the interim results should be pretty bitter.

Similar to the vast majority of other manufacturers, BMW will have "written in the red" in the second quarter, said Frank Schwope, auto analyst at NordLB in Hanover, opposite Merkur.de. In operational terms, BMW is likely to have made “500 million to one billion euros” loss in the second quarter, estimates Jürgen Pieper from the Metzler bank .

BMW and other car manufacturers are grappling with the consequences of the corona pandemic

Now BMW not an isolated case. Competitors are also struggling with the corona pandemic. Because, as with BMW, Volkswagen or Daimler had factories shut down and car dealerships had to close, losses were raining. Daimler sunk 1.7 billion euros operationally in the second quarter, at Volkswagen - after all the largest car manufacturer in the world - operationally even 2.4 billion euros ran up from April to June.

The situation is difficult enough even without Corona. After all, the entire industry is in the middle of the transformation from the classic combustion engine to e-mobility and autonomous driving. The conversion devours resources and costs billions, which should actually come from ongoing business. In addition, there are new, financially strong competitors such as Google in autonomous driving or the electric car manufacturer Tesla , which are causing serious problems for the established manufacturers.

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So it's no wonder that the once vigorous industry currently prefers to keep the ball flat. "The prognoses for 2020", warned about BMW boss Oliver Zipse * at the virtual general meeting in May shareholders and analysts, "are gloomy". * Merkur.de is an offer from the Ippen Digital Network.