BMW is sticking with sedans, even as some rivals cut back

BMW wants to keep making sedans in spite of U.S. tariff pressures on German imports and the far higher sales of sport utility vehicles, said Sebastian Mackensen, the company’s North America chief. 

Mackensen made the comments in an interview on Tuesday, a day before BMW unveiled an updated version of its full-size 7 Series sedan, which includes a slew of design and technology features BMW had originally developed for its electric vehicles. 

The 7 Series vehicles will be the first without electric powertrains to come equipped with the new tech, which includes a panoramic heads-up display in the windshield and a voice assistant that uses artificial intelligence. Other upgrades include an enlarged drop-down screen that, along with a 36-speaker array, can essentially turn the rear seats into a small movie theater. 

Called “neue klasse” — German for “new class” — BMW had intended its EVs to meld futuristic designs with a software-driven vehicle platform, following EV makers such as Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and Chinese brands.

“Already so many innovations have come to life that the company decided we need to bring those innovations into our entire lineup,” Mackensen said. 

The 7 Series currently starts above $99,000 for the base model and runs up through a $168,000 starting price for the high-performance i7 M70 EV.

“I would say it is really on the top of our product portfolio,” Mackensen said. “It is the pinnacle of what we produce when it comes to luxury, but obviously always, always performance.”

However, since 2018, another full-size BMW, the X7, has rocketed past the 7 Series in the U.S. in terms of sales. In 2025 BMW sold nearly about twice as many full-size X7 SUVs as it did full-size sedans, if you combine sales of both the 7-Series with the similar, two-door, 8-Series.

This reflects an industry-wide trend, as SUV sales have overtaken sedans by a wide margin. 

The X7, meanwhile, is made in Spartanburg, South Carolina, while the 7 Series, like all BMW sedans, is imported. Vehicles shipped to the U.S. from Germany carry a 15% tariff.

“This is definitely going to come into play,” said Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific. “I can’t see BMW ever reallocating production of the 7 Series stateside, so the automaker is going to have to carefully keep tabs on demand and actual sales, to see how long it will be worth it to import the 7 Series.” 

He added that the i7 is at even greater risk, given the pullback in U.S. EV sales. 

Though some of BMW’s closest rivals — such as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche — still have full-size sedans, several premium and luxury automakers have pulled theirs from the U.S. market in recent years.

Swedish maker Volvo stopped importing its S60 and S90 sedans in 2025. Lexus will discontinue the LS full-size sedan in the U.S. after the 2026 model year. German rival Audi said it will stop making the A8. It has been several years since American brand Lincoln made a sedan of any size.

Mackensen said that means the 7 Series sedan has a lot of potential. 

“We obviously have a successful SUV lineup,” he said. “But we have always been a very successful sedan brand. We have a healthy share of sedans in our overall sales. And we like sedans. A lot of BMW customers like sedans, and we have no intention to stop offering sedans also in the future.”

By some metrics, sedans don’t have as strong a business case as SUVs do, said Stuart Pearson, head of automotive and mobility research at Oxcap Analytics. 

“If you were being just purely economical about it and not thinking about image and brand, just saying, ‘Well, is this model worth the return?’ You might say no,” Pearson said.

Pearson added that BMW does sell many lower-priced sedans. The 7 Series shares underpinnings with some of them, such as the smaller 5 Series, so the cost of producing it is incremental, And, he added, the 7 Series is a technological flagship.

“I think they build these, these days, more to prove that they can than anything else,” said Sean Tucker, managing editor of Kelley Blue Book. “The fastest version of the 7 Series right now has a 0 to 60 time of 3.5 seconds. That is absurd for a car this large. The rear seats are as luxurious as the front seats. … This is everything BMW can build. It’s a showpiece.”

A substantial share of customers are still considering sedans overall. According to an AutoPacific survey of 18,000 Americans who plan to buy or lease a vehicle in the next three years, 45% of prospective BMW customers said they were most likely to get a four-door sedan. That percentage is very similar, if not identical, to that of Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

“I don’t think we’re going to see BMW pull the plug on its 7 Series soon, or Mercedes-Benz kill the S-Class anytime in the near future,” DeGraff said. “That, to me, would be a shocker. Those two brands really know their target audiences. Again, consumer choice is king in the luxury space.”

The U.S. alone accounts for about 30% of BMW’s profits, Pearson said, and that’s only grown as automakers have faced increasing pressure from Chinese automakers. 

“The U.S. is a critical market to BMW,” Pearson said. “It’s always been one of its more profitable markets.” 

The brand has set “ambitious” overall sales targets in the U.S. for 2026, Mackensen said — though he wouldn’t share specific numbers. In 2025, BMW was the top-selling luxury brand in the U.S., according to according to Kelley Blue Book.

“We are bullish on BMW performance in the United States,” he said.