BMW’s iX1 Electrifies German Roads but Shares Stall as Nedeljković Steps Into the CEO Seat

BMW is selling more electric cars in Germany than ever before, yet its stock remains pinned near a 52-week low. That contradiction sets the stage for Milan Nedeljković, who replaced Oliver Zipse as chief executive after the annual general meeting in May 2026 and immediately inherits a company that is winning in one market while sinking in others.

Germany’s battery-electric vehicle segment surged 39 percent in May from a year earlier, with nearly 60,000 new BEV registrations giving pure-electric cars a 25 percent slice of the total market. BMW placed four models in the top tier. The iX1 led the Bavarian charge with 1,736 new plates in May and 7,532 since January. It was followed by the iX3 (1,253 in May, 4,116 year-to-date), the i4 (937 and 4,202) and the i5 (757 and 4,278). The Mini Electric added 1,403 registrations last month, pushing its cumulative tally to 6,423.

Impressive as those numbers are, they fall short of the segment leaders. The Skoda Elroq notched 3,083 registrations in May, the VW ID.3 managed 3,050 and the Tesla Model Y posted 2,410 — bringing its year-to-date total to 13,678, nearly double BMW’s strongest performer.

The broader automotive landscape tells a different story. The VDA reported German car production slumped 18 percent in May to around 302,000 vehicles, while exports tumbled 19 percent. The overall market inched up just 0.1 percent. But pure BEV demand is running on its own rhythm: through the first five months of 2026, roughly 284,000 battery-electric cars were registered, up 41 percent. Plug-in hybrids added nearly 28,000 units in May, pushing the combined BEV and PHEV share to 36.7 percent.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BMW?

Nedeljković takes the helm at a moment when the operational pressure is mounting far beyond Germany’s borders. The company’s biggest headache is China, where first-quarter deliveries fell 10 percent to around 144,000 vehicles. That contributed to a group-wide global delivery decline of 3.5 percent to roughly 566,000 units in the first quarter, an 8.1 percent drop in revenue to just over €31 billion — the ninth consecutive quarterly sales decline — and an EBIT margin in the automotive segment of 5.0 percent, squarely inside the full-year target range of 4 to 6 percent but squeezed by tariffs that cost 1.25 percentage points of margin.

The new CEO is not an outsider. A PhD engineer, he joined BMW as a trainee in 1993, later ran the Leipzig and Munich plants and served as production chief from 2019. The supervisory board handed him a contract through 2031, betting that continuity can weather a storm that includes trade barriers, softening Chinese demand and the heavy cost of electrification.

That cost is most visible in the Neue Klasse architecture, the electric and software platform Zipse championed and Nedeljković helped scale in his previous role. He now carries full responsibility for whether models such as the long-wheelbase iX3 and the i3 can recapture momentum in China. At the same time, the group is pushing hydrogen technology. Pre-series production of the “Energy Master” control unit for fuel-cell powertrains has started in Landshut, where a second production line for the Neue Klasse’s BEV control unit is also running. The BMW iX5 Hydrogen is scheduled for 2028, backed by €191 million in federal funding and €82 million from Bavaria under the HyPowerDrive program.

At the bourse, none of this has provided a floor. BMW shares trade at €70.78, barely above the 52-week trough of €69.92. The stock has lost 26 percent since the start of the year, while another measure rounds the decline to roughly 25 percent. The dividend yield stands at a headline-grabbing 6.02 percent, based on the €4.30 per share paid out over the trailing twelve months. But that yield reflects the depressed price, not confidence. With 154,540 employees at the end of 2025 and a balance sheet that remains solid, Nedeljković has room to maneuver. But he must finance a multi-technology transition, defend margins and stabilise China — all while convincing the market that BMW can deliver more than just a high yield.