Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi all reported weaker first-half results, with global car sales, revenue and profit falling to multi-year lows, according to Jiemian News. Mercedes posted revenue of 63.66 billion euros, down 4.1% year on year, and EBIT of 3.45 billion euros; BMW reported revenue of 62.27 billion euros, down 8%, and EBIT of 3.64 billion euros; Audi reported revenue of 29.18 billion euros, down 10.4%, while operating profit rose to 1.12 billion euros. Their core passenger-car businesses were even weaker: Mercedes passenger-car EBIT dropped 66.2% to 860 million euros, BMW passenger-car EBIT fell 45.6% to 1.97 billion euros, and both companies cut profit guidance after second-quarter pressure from China, tariffs, costs and model changes.

China was the main drag on performance, with Mercedes, BMW and Audi selling 210,000, 262,000 and 233,000 vehicles in the market respectively in the first half, all down by 19.3% to 28.3%. By contrast, their global sales declined by only 4.2% to 7.2%. The companies said weaker consumer confidence, falling demand for luxury internal-combustion models, product transition periods and competition from local new-energy brands were hurting sales. Mercedes and BMW said they will tighten cost controls and capital spending, BMW confirmed it will use voluntary departures to reduce costs, and Audi said it will also streamline staffing and factory capacity.