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BMW CFO Sees €500 Million of Costs Burdening Q4 Results

BERLIN, Nov 5 (Reuters) - BMW Finance Chief Friedrich Eichiner said fourth-quarter earnings will be strained by about 500 million euros ($675.5 million) of upfront spending on technology that may push the quarterly automotive EBIT margin to the lower end of the company's target range.

BMW has a goal to keep the full-year automotive EBIT margin between 8 and 10 percent.

The CFO said on Tuesday that 2013 and 2014 will be "peak years" of spending on research and development projects including the all-electric i3 city car and the plug-in hybrid i8 sports car.

Customers may need to wait between 3 and 5 months for the four-seat i3 which has attracted as many as 9,000 pre-orders from potential buyers and about 100,000 requests for test drives, according to Eichiner.

Shares in BMW are down 3.6 pct as of 1036 GMT after the German luxury carmaker said third-quarter operating profit at its key automotive division fell more than expected due to the cost of new technology and price discounts in core European markets. ($1 = 0.7402 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Cremer, editing by Christiaan Hetzner)