BMW CFO Sees Full-Year Earnings at Higher End of Guidance
BMW AG’s Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter expects full-year earnings near the upper end of the company’s guidance.
(Bloomberg) -- BMW AG’s Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter expects full-year earnings near the upper end of the company’s guidance as higher vehicle prices offset production outages stemming from the dearth of chips.
BMW’s returns from automaking will likely be at the higher end of the 9.5% to 10.5% of sales the company projected in September, the CFO said. While BMW expects the chip shortage to stretch into the first half of next year, it still sees rising sales thanks to strong demand in China.
“October was better than we expected, November isn’t looking so bad, so, as you can imagine, I’d be disappointed if we weren’t at the higher end,” Peter told reporters in Frankfurt, referring to the company’s margin target.
BMW has navigated turmoil from the chip shortage better than others, and in late September went against the tide of warnings to raise profit expectations. Prices of used cars it sells in the U.S. and Europe have climbed due to the shortage of new vehicles available, supporting its margins even as production sputters.
“Against a backdrop of high consumer demand, we’ll also raise new-car prices by 1% next year,” Peter said.
Charging JV
The CFO declined to comment on whether shareholders of Ionity GmbH, the EV charging venture that BMW established with Volkswagen AG and other automakers, would seek a stock-exchange listing.
While Ionity is building high-speed charging stations across Europe, there remain gaps in its networks, particularly in popular vacation destinations like Italy and Spain.
“It makes a lot of sense to get further investors involved with Ionity in order to reach a certain speed and we’re also prepared to invest more ourselves,” Peter said. “We’re definitely going to take a further step with Ionity. We will accelerate things.”
EV Sales
BMW’s sales of fully electric vehicles will at least double next year as the company’s i4 coupe and iX SUV go on sale in major markets, Peter said. That would take EV shipments to at least 200,000, from the 100,000 the company expects to sell this year. BMW may have 2 million EVs on the road by 2025, rising to 10 million by 2030 for at least half of global deliveries.
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