BMW has always been renowned as the most engineering-focused legacy car company. Its latest designs are aerodynamic without lacking identity. More importantly, BMW managed to do something that other German automakers can ' t.
Engineering teams at BMW have created new vehicle platforms that can integrate petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, pure battery-electric, and even hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains. Most of BMW ' s legacy rivals consider this engineering approach is too expensive, creating excessive packaging complexity and scar mass. But BMW has made it work without compromising the driving experience for which its cars are renowned.
The multi-powertrain platform approach gives BMW ' s planners greater responsiveness to changes in customer demand. That means it can respond to local car purchasing incentives, wherever customers are globally, if EV incentives increase, or PHEVs become more popular.
The future of German automakers
The numbers from Germany are dire and will put pressure on budgets and global strategic planning for BMW, Mercedes-Benz and VW ' s South African auto assembly operations.
Germany ' s seemingly unassailable advantage in mechanical and thermal engineering, creating engines and gearboxes that were unrivalled, is no longer the moat it once was. For most customers, the true differentiator is how their car interacts with their mobile phone and digital life, not its high-speed autobahn performance.
Without a developed software industry, Germany cannot compete with China ' s digital automotive design and in-car technology features. Legacy labour costs, surging power costs and management arrogance have been the undoing of Germany ' s once peerless auto industry.
VW has been present in China since the 1980s. Its senior managers had deep exposure to the evolving Chinese market and the incredible technological and development capabilities of Chinese engineers and suppliers. Despite this, there was a belief that even advanced Chinese automakers would never be able to build vehicles equal to German models.
The sales collapse of VW and other German automakers in China is telling evidence that the German auto industry catastrophically underestimated Chinese car companies.
What has not changed is Germany ' s excellent technical education system and its advanced graduate engineering pathways. Germany still has some of the best automotive engineers, designers, and programme managers in the world. The issue is that they are being over-managed and not allowed to experiment and be as daring as their Chinese rivals.
The German auto industry needs a reset. It needs to be freed from layers of managers and committees that are stifling product development teams, engineers, and designers.
JULY | AUGUST 2026 49 WORDS IN ACTION