BMW has been exposed that it plans to lay off 5,000 to 6,000 people by 2022.

　　German automaker BMW’s layoff plan was exposed.

　　On September 19th, Reuters quoted the German magazine Manager as saying that BMW planned to lay off 5,000 to 6,000 people by 2022. According to the above report, this layoff plan will be announced in December, which is part of the cost reduction plan that BMW is implementing. The main place of layoffs is the headquarters in Munich, Germany.

　　In response to the above report, BMW responded that its goal is to maintain the same workforce in 2019 as last year. "We are using layoffs to make the company pay more attention to the future and improve efficiency." At the same time, the company said that it will continue to recruit talents in areas such as autonomous driving and electric vehicles.

　　In March this year, BMW Group launched a cost reduction plan of 12 billion euros. The company said that it will achieve faster processes and a leaner structure, thus improving efficiency, and layoffs are also part of the ongoing plan. When BMW announced the plan, it said that its profit in 2019 would be "much lower" than that in 2018, so it implemented a cost-saving plan of 12 billion euros to help offset the adverse effects caused by trade conflicts and unprecedented investment expenditure on electric vehicles.

　　In order to cut costs, BMW also plans to eliminate some models and reduce research and development time by up to one third. Nicolas Peter, chief financial officer of BMW Group, said: "The automobile industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. If we want to continue to promote change, sustained high profit margins are crucial."

　　Judging from the financial report data, BMW is facing the pressure of falling profits. In the first half of this year, BMW Group’s revenue was 48.177 billion euros, up by 1.1% year-on-year. However, compared with last year’s 5.446 billion euros, earnings before interest and tax decreased by 48.8%, reaching 2.79 billion euros. The profit rate before tax was 5.8%, lower than 12.6% in the same period; The net profit was 2.068 billion euros, down 52.5% year-on-year.

　　BMW also expects that pre-tax profit will drop by more than 10% in 2019. According to BMW, the profit margin of the automobile industry will be between 6% and 8% in 2019, which is lower than the long-term target of 8% to 10%. In 2018, the profit margin of BMW was 7.2%.

　　Comprehensive report by The Paper reporter Bao Yuxi