During an interview on France Inter on Saturday, PSA's CEO Carlos Tavares mentioned BMW's "profit warning" as a sign of weakening of the entire sector by regulatory requirements. The obligation for car manufacturers to carry out forced electrification of their commercial ranges - whereas though customers seem reluctant to take the plunge - can only erode margins.
Indeed, in the case of BMW, the management is justifying the impossibility of meeting 2018 profit targets by both the trade war between the US and China - which hinders the sales in China of vehicles (X3, X4, X5, X6) assembled in the American plant in Spartanburg - and by the transition to the new WLTP procedure which "causes strong price pressure". read more
