European Automaker Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy | Last updated: September 10, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Europe’s five largest carmakers booked 395.9 billion euros of revenue in the first half of 2026, up 0.4% on H1 2025, and 16.3 billion euros of operating profit, down 10.7%. Axis Intelligence Research finds their combined operating margin fell from 4.63% to 4.12% in twelve months, on 10.29 million vehicles sold.
Quick Answer
Revenue at Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz Group, BMW Group and Renault Group was flat in H1 2026 while profit fell by more than a tenth. The number underneath that average matters more: Axis Intelligence Research finds Mercedes-Benz earned 2,548 euros of industrial operating profit per vehicle in H1 2026, against 586 euros at Stellantis, a 4.3-fold spread inside a single industry and a single half-year. Separately, 29.48% of the operating profit reported by the four groups that consolidate a captive finance arm came from lending, leasing and insurance rather than from building cars.
Key Findings
- According to the five groups’ H1 2026 filings, Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz Group, BMW Group and Renault Group generated 395,897 million euros of revenue and 16,317 million euros of operating profit, against 394,327 million and 18,265 million a year earlier.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds industrial operating profit per vehicle ranged from 2,548 euros at Mercedes-Benz Group to 586 euros at Stellantis in H1 2026, with BMW Group at 1,707 euros, Volkswagen Group at 1,065 euros and Renault Group at 699 euros.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds captive financial services generated 4,300 million euros of the 14,584 million euros of operating profit reported by Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Renault in H1 2026, or 29.48% , and 48.05% of Renault Group’s total.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds BMW Group recorded the sharpest margin deterioration of the five, with its Automotive segment EBIT margin falling 2.55 percentage points to 3.63%, while Stellantis was the only group to improve, adding 1.39 points to reach a 2.12% adjusted operating income margin.
- According to BMW Group’s half-year report, US import tariffs reduced its Automotive segment EBIT margin by roughly 1.25 percentage points in H1 2026, and Stellantis put its full-year net tariff headwind at 1.0 to 1.2 billion euros.
How Much Money Did Europe’s Five Biggest Carmakers Make in H1 2026?
Every figure below comes from the group’s own half-year filing, retrieved 9 September 2026. The profit column uses each group’s headline profitability measure, which is not the same accounting definition in every case; the differences are set out in the methodology and they matter.
| Group | H1 2026 revenue (EUR m) | H1 2025 revenue (EUR m) | Headline operating profit (EUR m) | H1 2025 (EUR m) | Margin | Vehicles (000s) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen Group | 158,102 | 158,364 | 5,931 | 6,707 | 3.8% | 3,997 | VW H1 2026 release |
| Stellantis | 81,614 | 74,261 | 1,733 | 540 | 2.1% | 2,958 | Stellantis Q2 2026 release |
| Mercedes-Benz Group | 63,663 | 66,377 | 3,451 | 3,562 | 5.4% | 1,012 | Mercedes interim report |
| BMW Group | 62,266 | 67,685 | 3,635 | 5,803 | 5.8% | 1,157 | BMW half-year report |
| Renault Group | 30,252 | 27,640 | 1,567 | 1,653 | 5.2% | 1,165 | Renault financial report |
| Total | 395,897 | 394,327 | 16,317 | 18,265 | 4.12% | 10,288 | Axis calculation |
Measures: Volkswagen operating result; Stellantis adjusted operating income; Mercedes-Benz Group EBIT; BMW Group EBIT; Renault Group operating margin. Vehicle counts are group vehicle sales (VW), consolidated shipments (Stellantis), Cars plus Vans unit sales (Mercedes-Benz), Automotive segment deliveries (BMW) and worldwide registrations (Renault).
Two things sit inside that table that the headline average hides.
The first is that revenue held up because two groups grew hard while three shrank. Stellantis added 7.4 billion euros of revenue, almost entirely from a North American recovery, and Renault Group reported 30,252 million euros, up 9.5%. Against that, BMW lost 5.4 billion and Mercedes-Benz 2.7 billion, both on China.
The second is that Volkswagen sold 3,997,000 vehicles, down 8.4%, while its revenue moved 0.2%. Price and mix did the work that volume used to do, and Volkswagen’s own half-year release attributes the Q2 revenue gain partly to financial services and higher pricing rather than units. The registration side of the same story, market by market, sits in our Europe EV statistics analysis.
Mia Scarlett: Read the profit column against the revenue column and the industry’s problem states itself. Revenue is flat, profit is down a tenth, and nobody is buying growth. Volkswagen’s operating result fell 776 million euros; its CFO’s assessment of a 3.8% margin was that it “remains too low”, which is an unusual thing to find in a results release and worth taking at face value. The five groups collectively earn about 4.1 cents on the euro at the operating line. A supplier with an investment-grade rating earns more. That is not a cyclical reading, it is a structural one, and the cost programmes running at four of the five are the admission.
Introducing IEQI: The Axis Industrial Earnings Quality Index
Ranking carmakers on headline margin flatters whoever has the largest captive bank and punishes nobody for burning cash. To compare the five European groups on the quality of what their factories actually earn, Axis Intelligence Research built the Industrial Earnings Quality Index (IEQI).
IEQI scores each group from 0 to 100 on three sourced components, with disclosed weights:
| Component | Weight | What it measures | Input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial margin | 40% | What the car business earns now | Automotive or industrial operating profit as a share of automotive or industrial revenue, H1 2026 |
| Margin direction | 30% | Which way it is moving | Change in that margin against H1 2025, in percentage points |
| Cash conversion | 30% | Whether the profit turns into cash | Industrial or automotive free cash flow as a share of industrial or automotive revenue, H1 2026 |
Each component is min-max normalised across the five groups, then weighted and summed. The industrial layer is isolated by stripping out the captive finance segment from both profit and revenue wherever the group consolidates one, so that a bank’s earnings cannot flatter a factory’s score. Every input and the full arithmetic ship in the dataset.
European Automaker Ranking 2026: IEQI Scores
| # | Group | IEQI | Industrial margin | Direction (pp) | Cash conversion | Industrial profit per vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes-Benz Group | 84.7 | 5.02% | −0.62 | 5.76% | EUR 2,548 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Group | 49.2 | 3.37% | −0.43 | 2.50% | EUR 1,065 |
| 3 | Renault Group | 40.3 | 3.04% | −0.97 | 2.44% | EUR 699 |
| 4 | BMW Group | 36.1 | 3.63% | −2.55 | 2.37% | EUR 1,707 |
| 5 | Stellantis | 30.0 | 2.12% | +1.39 | −1.13% | EUR 586 |
Source: Axis Intelligence Research calculation on H1 2026 filings. Anchors for this reading: margin 2.12 to 5.02; direction −2.55 to +1.39; cash conversion −1.13 to +5.76.
Three results are worth stopping on.
BMW ranks fourth on the second-best margin. Its Automotive segment still earns 3.63%, above Volkswagen’s industrial 3.37% and Renault’s automotive 3.04%. It scores badly because that margin fell 2.55 points in a year, the steepest drop in the group, and because automotive free cash flow fell 45.0% to 1,290 million euros. A ranking on level alone would have shown BMW as mid-pack and told you nothing about the direction the company itself has already conceded, having cut its full-year Automotive EBIT margin guidance to a range of 1% to 3%.
Stellantis ranks fifth while being the only group improving. Its adjusted operating income margin rose 140 basis points to 2.12% and its adjusted operating income tripled to 1,733 million euros. It scores lowest because industrial free cash flow was negative 921 million euros, the only negative cash reading of the five, and because the improvement started from 0.73%. Recovery from a low base is real, and it is not the same as earning money.
Mercedes-Benz wins on cash, not on cars. Its 5.76% industrial free cash flow conversion is more than double the next best. That reading is helped by 3,024 million euros of CFBIT at Mercedes-Benz Cars, a figure that includes a 2,560 million euro working capital release, and by disposal proceeds. The margin reading, at 5.02%, is genuinely the best of the five; the cash reading is the best of the five and partly a one-half effect. Both are in the dataset with the components separated so anyone can reweight them.
Mia Scarlett: The interesting entry is Renault at third with the second-worst industrial margin. Its automotive business earned 814 million euros on 26,806 million euros of revenue, and the operating margin it reports excludes the 313 million euros of restructuring charges booked below the line, 212 million of that in France. Strip nothing out and the picture is thinner still. Renault has the cleanest revenue growth story in this table and the weakest factory economics, and those two facts are the same fact: volume grew through sales to partners and India, which is revenue that arrives at a lower margin than a Clio sold in France.
How Much Profit Does Each European Carmaker Make Per Vehicle?
This is the ratio the industry itself watches and none of the five publishes. Axis Intelligence Research computes it as industrial operating profit divided by vehicles sold in the same period.
| Group | Industrial operating profit (EUR m) | Vehicles (000s) | Profit per vehicle (EUR) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes-Benz Group | 2,577 | 1,012 | 2,548 | Axis calculation on Mercedes interim report |
| BMW Group | 1,974 | 1,157 | 1,707 | Axis calculation on BMW half-year report |
| Volkswagen Group | 4,258 | 3,997 | 1,065 | Axis calculation on VW H1 2026 release |
| Renault Group | 814 | 1,165 | 699 | Axis calculation on Renault financial report |
| Stellantis | 1,733 | 2,958 | 586 | Axis calculation on Stellantis Q2 2026 release |
Formula: industrial operating profit divided by vehicles sold, H1 2026. Industrial profit is group operating profit less the captive finance segment where one is consolidated. Volkswagen: 5,931 minus 1,673 = 4,258 million euros. Mercedes-Benz: 3,451 minus 874 = 2,577 million euros. BMW: Automotive segment EBIT of 1,974 million euros as reported. Renault: Automotive segment operating margin of 814 million euros as reported. Stellantis: group adjusted operating income of 1,733 million euros, since its financing is not consolidated as a segment.
Axis Intelligence Research finds Mercedes-Benz Group earned 4.3 times as much industrial operating profit per vehicle as Stellantis in H1 2026, and 3.6 times as much as Renault Group. Premium mix explains part of that and not all of it: BMW sells into the same segments as Mercedes and earned 841 euros less per unit, because the same China contraction hit its volume harder relative to its cost base.
Comparison across price bands has an obvious caveat and it is worth stating plainly rather than burying it. A group averaging a 64,700 euro transaction price, which is what Mercedes-Benz reported for its Cars division in Q2 2026, is not competing for the same euro as one selling Dacia Sanderos. Where those transaction prices actually sit across the European market is covered in our Europe EV price analysis, and the incoming price competition is quantified in our Chinese EV market share in Europe breakdown. Profit per vehicle is a productivity measure, not a verdict on strategy. What makes it useful is the direction of travel within each band, and within the premium band the gap between Stuttgart and Munich opened in a single half-year.
How Much of Europe’s Automotive Profit Now Comes From Lending Rather Than Building?
Four of the five groups consolidate a captive finance arm: Volkswagen Group Mobility, BMW Financial Services, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Mobilize Financial Services. These businesses lend to buyers and dealers, lease vehicles and sell insurance. In H1 2026 they carried an unusual share of the load.
| Group | Captive finance operating profit (EUR m) | Group operating profit (EUR m) | Captive share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renault Group | 753 | 1,567 | 48.05% | Renault financial report |
| Volkswagen Group | 1,673 | 5,931 | 28.21% | VW H1 2026 release |
| BMW Group | 1,000 | 3,635 | 27.51% | BMW half-year report |
| Mercedes-Benz Group | 874 | 3,451 | 25.33% | Mercedes interim report |
| Four-group total | 4,300 | 14,584 | 29.48% | Axis calculation |
Axis Intelligence Research finds Mobilize Financial Services contributed 753 million euros of Renault Group’s 1,567 million euro operating margin in H1 2026, or 48.05% , the highest captive dependency among Europe’s large listed carmakers, and up from 40.41% a year earlier when the split was 668 million out of 1,653 million. Mobilize’s contribution rose 85 million euros while the automotive segment’s fell 171 million.
Stellantis is deliberately absent from that table. Its consumer financing in Europe runs through joint ventures with BNP Paribas, Santander and Crédit Agricole rather than through a consolidated segment, so a captive-share reading for Stellantis would be near zero by accounting construction and would say nothing about the underlying business. Axis Intelligence Research does not publish a number that would be misread, and the reason is the point: this metric compares corporate structures as much as it compares performance, which is why the formula and the exclusion are both on the page.
Mia Scarlett: A captive bank is a good business and a rising rate cycle has been kind to all four. That is not the concern. The concern is what the ratio implies about the other side. BMW Financial Services earned 1,000 million euros while BMW’s Automotive segment earned 1,974 million, so the bank produced a third of what the factories did on a fraction of the headcount. Renault’s split is closer to even. A carmaker whose captive is approaching half of group profit is running an asset-heavy manufacturer attached to a consumer lender, and credit analysts price those two things very differently. The residual value assumptions inside the leasing book are where I would look next, because used electric values are the input nobody wants to restate.
How Big Is China’s Hit to European Carmaker Earnings in 2026?
The single largest driver of the H1 2026 profit decline was one market. According to BMW Group’s half-year report, the Chinese automobile market contracted 20.2% in the first half of 2026. The domestic side of that contraction, including the price war driving it, is covered in our China EV statistics analysis.
| Group | China H1 2026 | China H1 2025 | Change | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen Group | 856,000 | 1,242,000 | −31.08% | Equity-accounted China JV vehicle sales | VW H1 2026 release |
| Mercedes-Benz Cars | 210,245 | 293,172 | −28.29% | Unit sales including BBAC | Mercedes interim report |
| BMW Group | 261,999 | 329,006 | −20.37% | Deliveries, China sales region | BMW half-year report |
Against that, Europe grew for both German premium groups by exactly the same margin: BMW delivered 497,215 vehicles in its Europe sales region, up 5.4%, and Mercedes-Benz Cars sold 324,976 units in Europe, up 5.4%. Neither increase was large enough to offset China.
The accounting consequence is visible in two places. Mercedes-Benz booked 844 million euros of valuation effects on Chinese equity-method investments in Q2 2026, comprising 752 million of impairments and a 92 million risk provision tied to a financing commitment to smart. That charge took Mercedes-Benz Cars’ reported return on sales down to 0.2% in Q2 2026, against an adjusted 4.0%. At BMW, scheduled amortisation on the BMW Brilliance purchase price allocation ran to roughly 600 million euros in H1 2026 and cost the Automotive segment about 1.2 percentage points of EBIT margin on its own.
Mia Scarlett: Three groups, three different ways of showing you the same wound. Volkswagen’s China joint ventures are equity-accounted, so the volume collapse appears as a line about associates and never touches consolidated revenue. Mercedes takes it as an impairment and tells you the number. BMW carries it as amortisation from a deal signed years ago and quantifies the margin cost in basis points. If you compare the three groups on reported margin without opening the notes, you are comparing accounting policies. The 844 million euro charge at Mercedes is the honest version of a cost the other two are also paying.
What Are Tariffs Actually Costing European Carmakers in 2026?
Trade terms changed mid-year. According to the European Commission, the EU-US framework entered into force on 1 July 2026 following approval by the European Parliament and Council, capping US tariffs at a 15% all-inclusive ceiling across most sectors including cars, with no stacking. On the EU side, duties on US industrial goods were eliminated; BMW Group’s half-year report records that tariffs on imports of automobiles and parts into the EU fell from 10% to 0% on the same date.
The cost of the period before that shows up cleanly in two filings.
| Group | Disclosed tariff effect | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW Group | −1.25 percentage points of Automotive EBIT margin | H1 2026 | BMW half-year report |
| BMW Group | −1.5 percentage points of Automotive EBIT margin | FY 2025 | BMW half-year report |
| Stellantis | 0.3 billion euros net, including a 0.4 billion euro IEEPA refund | H1 2026 | Stellantis Q2 2026 release |
| Stellantis | 1.0 to 1.2 billion euros net, guided | FY 2026 | Stellantis Q2 2026 release |
Volkswagen states its full-year outlook assumes the current tariff situation is unchanged, without quantifying the H1 charge separately. Mercedes-Benz and Renault do not disclose a discrete tariff figure in their half-year filings. Axis Intelligence Research therefore publishes the two quantified disclosures rather than estimating the other three; a cross-industry tariff total assembled from a mix of disclosed and inferred numbers would look precise and be worth very little.
Which European Car Groups Are Cutting Costs Fastest?
Every group in this set is running a reduction programme, and the spending lines show it before the headcount lines do.
| Group | R&D, H1 2026 | Change | Investment or capex measure | Programme disclosed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes-Benz Group | EUR 4,329m | −8% | Property, plant and equipment EUR 1,969m, +23% | Productivity offensive for Germany, launched June 2026 | Mercedes interim report |
| BMW Group | EUR 3,714m | −7.6% | R&D ratio 6.0% of revenue | Workforce restructuring agreed with Works Council, up to 1.25pp of FY margin | BMW half-year report |
| Volkswagen Group | Not separately disclosed | , | Investment ratio 10.6%, from 11.4% | Group future plan; employees 652,200 at 30 June 2026 | VW H1 2026 release |
| Renault Group | EUR 1,293m gross | −0.8% | Net capex and R&D 5.3% of revenue, from 7.1% | futuREady; EUR 313m restructuring charged in H1 | Renault financial report |
| Stellantis | Combined with capex | , | Capex plus R&D guided at 6.5% to 7.0% of revenue | FaSTLAne 2030; EUR 0.9bn of H2 2025 charges paid in H1 | Stellantis Q2 2026 release |
Volkswagen Group employed 652,200 people at 30 June 2026, down from 662,900 at the end of 2025, a reduction of 10,700 in six months. Mercedes-Benz recorded 261 million euros of expense on optimisation programmes in H1 2026, against 560 million a year earlier, and closed its German indirect-areas workforce adjustment programme as planned on 31 March 2026.
Renault’s capitalisation rate is the line that will move an analyst’s model: 59.7% of research and development expenditure was capitalised in H1 2026, against 50.2% a year earlier, an increase the group attributes mainly to Software Defined Vehicle expenses capitalised from 1 March 2026. BMW’s capitalisation rate moved the other way, from 36.9% to 34.8%.
Mia Scarlett: Nine points of capitalisation rate is not a rounding difference. Renault booked 719 million euros of development spend to the balance sheet this half against 633 million last half, on gross R&D that barely moved. That is a legitimate accounting treatment for software with a defined life and it flatters the current period’s operating margin by deferring cost into future amortisation. The group’s 3.0% automotive margin is the number after that treatment. BMW moved in the opposite direction and flagged the lower capitalisation rate as one of the reasons its full-year margin guidance came down. Same industry, same half, opposite direction on the same lever. When two competitors diverge on capitalisation, the comparison you want is cash, which is why it carries 30% of the IEQI weight.
How Big Is Europe’s Automotive Industry Overall?
The five groups sit inside a sector whose scale is the reason its margin problem is a political problem. Figures below come from the ACEA Automobile Industry Pocket Guide 2025/2026, which compiles from Eurostat and national sources.
| Metric | Value | Reference year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total EU automotive employment, direct and indirect | 13.6 million | 2023 | ACEA |
| Direct manufacturing jobs | 2.5 million | 2023 | ACEA |
| Automotive R&D spending in the EU | EUR 84.6 billion | 2023 | ACEA |
| Share of total EU private R&D spending | 34% | 2023 | ACEA |
| EU passenger car production | 11.5 million units | 2024 | ACEA |
| Fiscal income from motor vehicles, EU major markets | EUR 414.7 billion | 2024 | ACEA |
| EU vehicle trade surplus | EUR 94 billion | 2024 | ACEA |
The sector is the largest private investor in research and development in the European Union, at more than double the next-largest, and it funds roughly 414.7 billion euros of national tax revenue in the major markets. A 51 basis point fall in the operating margin of its five largest firms is not, on its own, an emergency. It becomes one when read next to the tax base and the 2.5 million people who assemble the vehicles.
Methodology
Collection. All company figures are taken from the five groups’ own half-year 2026 filings and results releases, retrieved 9 September 2026: the Volkswagen Group H1 2026 press release of 24 July 2026; the Stellantis Q2 2026 financial results release of 30 July 2026; the Mercedes-Benz Group Interim Report as of 30 June 2026, authorised for publication 27 July 2026; the BMW Group Half-Year Report to 30 June 2026 of 30 July 2026, reviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers; and the Renault Group Financial Report First Half 2026, examined by the Board of Directors on 29 July 2026. Sector aggregates come from ACEA. Trade policy status comes from the European Commission.
Comparability of profit measures. The five groups do not report a single common profitability line, and no calculation on this page pretends otherwise. Volkswagen reports an operating result including special items; BMW reports EBIT; Mercedes-Benz reports EBIT and, separately, adjusted EBIT; Renault reports an operating margin that excludes restructuring costs; Stellantis reports adjusted operating income that excludes restructuring and impairment. Every table names the measure used. Where a group publishes both reported and adjusted figures, the reported figure is used, so that the comparison is not made on five different sets of exclusions. Two consequences follow and are stated rather than smoothed: Volkswagen’s operating return on sales before special items was 4.3% against 3.8% reported, and Mercedes-Benz Cars’ adjusted return on sales was 4.0% against 1.9% reported.
IEQI formula. For each of the five groups:
- Industrial margin = industrial operating profit divided by industrial revenue, H1 2026, where industrial excludes the consolidated captive finance segment
- Direction = industrial margin H1 2026 minus industrial margin H1 2025, in percentage points
- Cash conversion = industrial or automotive free cash flow divided by industrial or automotive revenue, H1 2026
Each component is min-max normalised to a 0 to 100 scale across the five groups. Anchors for this reading: margin 2.12 to 5.02; direction −2.55 to +1.39; cash conversion −1.13 to +5.76.
IEQI = (0.40 × margin_normalised) + (0.30 × direction_normalised) + (0.30 × cash_normalised)
The 40% weight on the margin level reflects that current factory profitability is the most reliable observation available. Direction and cash carry 30% each because a margin that is falling and a margin that does not convert to cash are the two ways a good current reading turns out to have been temporary.
Segment constructions. Volkswagen does not publish an operating result for its Automotive Division, so Axis Intelligence Research derives it as group operating result less Volkswagen Group Mobility (5,931 − 1,673 = 4,258 million euros) over group revenue less Group Mobility revenue (158,102 − 31,574 = 126,528 million euros). The equivalent H1 2025 construction is (6,707 − 1,811) over (158,364 − 29,362). Mercedes-Benz industrial business is taken as group EBIT less Financial Services EBIT over group revenue less Financial Services revenue, matching the group’s own industrial-business presentation. BMW and Renault report automotive segment figures directly. Stellantis reports no consolidated finance segment, so its group adjusted operating income and net revenues are used unmodified.
Cash conversion inputs. Volkswagen Automotive Division net cash flow of 3,166 million euros; BMW Automotive segment free cash flow of 1,290 million euros; Mercedes-Benz free cash flow of the industrial business of 2,959 million euros; Renault Automotive operational free cash flow of 653 million euros; Stellantis industrial free cash flows of −921 million euros. These are the groups’ own definitions and they differ in their treatment of interest, tax and leases. The dataset carries each definition against its row.
Scope. All figures cover the six months to 30 June 2026 unless a row states otherwise. Vehicle counts are on each group’s own basis and are not interchangeable: Volkswagen reports vehicle sales including equity-accounted Chinese joint ventures, Stellantis reports consolidated shipments, BMW reports Automotive segment deliveries, Mercedes-Benz reports Cars and Vans unit sales, and Renault reports worldwide registrations. Per-vehicle figures are therefore comparable in order of magnitude and direction rather than to the euro. Sector figures from ACEA carry reference years of 2023 and 2024, the most recent available in the current Pocket Guide edition.
About This Dataset
european-automaker-statistics.csv contains 264 rows covering every figure cited on this page: group revenue, operating profit and margins for H1 2026 and H1 2025, segment splits, captive finance contributions, unit sales by group and region, China exposure, free cash flow, R&D and capitalisation rates, employment, disclosed tariff effects, all three IEQI components with normalised values and final scores, and EU sector aggregates. Each row carries source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary, axis_calculated and, where calculated, a method_note giving the full formula.
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Free to use, republish and redistribute with attribution.
Mirrors: Hugging Face, Kaggle, GitHub.
Cite This Research
APA , Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). European automaker statistics 2026: Revenue, margins and profit per car at VW, Stellantis, Renault, BMW and Mercedes. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/european-automaker-statistics/
MLA , Axis Intelligence Research. “European Automaker Statistics 2026: Revenue, Margins and Profit Per Car at VW, Stellantis, Renault, BMW and Mercedes.” Axis Intelligence, 10 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/european-automaker-statistics/.
Chicago , Axis Intelligence Research. “European Automaker Statistics 2026: Revenue, Margins and Profit Per Car at VW, Stellantis, Renault, BMW and Mercedes.” Axis Intelligence, September 10, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/european-automaker-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which European carmaker was the most profitable in the first half of 2026?
On headline margin, BMW Group at 5.8% EBIT and Mercedes-Benz Group at 5.4% EBIT. On the profitability of the car business alone, Mercedes-Benz leads at a 5.02% industrial margin and 2,548 euros of industrial operating profit per vehicle. The two rankings differ because BMW’s group EBIT margin is lifted by Financial Services, which contributed 1,000 million euros of its 3,635 million euro group EBIT while its Automotive segment margin was 3.63%.
Why do European carmakers report profit differently from each other?
Because each group defines its own headline measure. Renault’s operating margin excludes restructuring costs, which came to 313 million euros in H1 2026. Stellantis reports adjusted operating income, which excludes restructuring and impairment. Volkswagen’s operating result includes special items such as the roughly 500 million euros tied to ending ID.4 production in the United States. Mercedes-Benz publishes both EBIT and adjusted EBIT, and the gap between them at Cars level in H1 2026 was 1.9% against 4.0%. Comparing headline margins across the five without naming the measure compares accounting policy, not performance.
How much did the China downturn cost VW, BMW and Mercedes in 2026?
The Chinese market contracted 20.2% in H1 2026 on BMW’s count. Volkswagen’s equity-accounted Chinese joint ventures sold 856,000 vehicles against 1,242,000, down 31.08%. Mercedes-Benz Cars sold 210,245 units in China, down 28.29%, and booked 844 million euros of valuation effects on Chinese equity-method investments. BMW delivered 261,999 vehicles in its China sales region, down 20.37%, and carries roughly 600 million euros of half-yearly BMW Brilliance amortisation worth about 1.2 percentage points of Automotive EBIT margin.
Do European carmakers make more money from finance than from cars?
Not yet in aggregate, but the share is high and rising at one group. Captive finance produced 29.48% of the operating profit reported by the four groups that consolidate one. At Renault Group the figure is 48.05%, up from 40.41% in H1 2025, because Mobilize Financial Services added 85 million euros while the automotive segment lost 171 million. Stellantis is excluded from that calculation because its European consumer financing runs through joint ventures rather than a consolidated segment.
What is the IEQI and how is it calculated?
The Industrial Earnings Quality Index is Axis Intelligence Research’s composite ranking European automakers on the quality of what their industrial operations earn, rather than on headline group margin. It combines industrial operating margin (40%), the change in that margin against the prior-year half (30%) and industrial free cash flow conversion (30%), each min-max normalised across the five groups. The H1 2026 reading places Mercedes-Benz Group at 84.7, Volkswagen Group at 49.2, Renault Group at 40.3, BMW Group at 36.1 and Stellantis at 30.0. All inputs and normalised values ship in the dataset.
How much are US tariffs costing European car manufacturers?
Two of the five quantify it. BMW Group put the effect at roughly 1.25 percentage points of Automotive segment EBIT margin in H1 2026, against about 1.5 points in FY 2025. Stellantis guided to a net full-year headwind of 1.0 to 1.2 billion euros, with H1 net tariff costs of 0.3 billion euros after a 0.4 billion euro refund of duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The EU-US framework entered into force on 1 July 2026, capping US tariffs at a 15% all-inclusive ceiling and taking EU duties on US-built cars from 10% to 0%.
Is Stellantis recovering or still in trouble?
Both readings are supported by its own filing. Net revenues rose 10% to 81,614 million euros, adjusted operating income tripled to 1,733 million, the margin gained 140 basis points to 2.12% and net profit reached 670 million euros against a 2,256 million euro loss. Against that, industrial free cash flow was negative 921 million euros, its Enlarged Europe segment posted an adjusted operating loss of 86 million euros in H1, and about 2 billion euros of cash payments tied to H2 2025 charges fall due, of which 0.9 billion was paid in H1 2026. The trajectory improved; the absolute level remains the weakest of the five.
Which European automaker is cutting costs hardest in 2026?
By disclosed programme scope, Volkswagen Group and Mercedes-Benz Group. Volkswagen reduced headcount from 662,900 at end-2025 to 652,200 at 30 June 2026 and cut its investment ratio from 11.4% to 10.6%. Mercedes-Benz cut R&D expenditure 8% to 4,329 million euros and launched a productivity offensive for Germany in June 2026 covering longer working hours without additional pay and a deferred transformation payment. BMW cut R&D 7.6% and selling and administrative expenses 6.1%, and has a workforce restructuring programme agreed with its Works Council worth up to 1.25 percentage points of full-year margin.
Where does European automaker profitability go from here in 2026?
The guidance the five have published points in different directions. Volkswagen expects a full-year operating return on sales of 4.0% to 5.5% on revenue of −3% to 0%. BMW cut its Automotive EBIT margin guidance to 1% to 3% and expects group profit before tax to fall significantly. Mercedes-Benz confirmed Cars adjusted return on sales guidance of 3% to 5% while lowering revenue expectations. Renault confirmed a group operating margin of around 5.5% and automotive free cash flow of around 1.0 billion euros. Stellantis reaffirmed mid-single-digit revenue growth and a low-single-digit adjusted operating income margin. Two of five have cut guidance this year; none has raised it.