BMW Brilliance Automotive has started cutting about 1,800 jobs at its Shenyang operations, with the reductions beginning on November 2. The figure represents roughly 10 percent of the joint venture's headcount, and it arrives as BMW's China sales come under heavier pressure.

Most of the affected workers are frontline production staff, though some administrative roles are included too. BMW has not confirmed the cuts publicly, and it's unclear whether they are tied to any wider restructuring beyond the Chinese market.

BMW Brilliance began as a joint venture with Brilliance Group in 2003, and BMW has controlled it since a 2022 stake increase. The company has reportedly slowed hiring and let contracts lapse over the past three years before this round of cuts began.

Severance for departing employees reportedly follows an N+5 formula, with "N" tied to pre-tax monthly salary for each year of service and the extra five months paid at base salary, excluding bonuses. That's more generous than the standard N severance baseline, though still short of what some workers expected given the company's German footprint.

BMW has made other workforce moves abroad recently, including cuts tied to its 8,000 planned job reductions in Germany and a separate round of management-level cuts announced as part of a broader strategy shift. Neither of those moves has been formally linked to the Shenyang layoffs.

Other automakers have run similar plans this year. Volkswagen circulated an internal memo discussing layoffs affecting up to 100,000 positions globally, while Porsche has reportedly weighed cutting roughly 5,000 jobs as margins tighten across the German industry.

Source link