For decades, tracking US vehicle sales was pretty straightforward. The quarterly numbers were either up, down, or stable, and fluctuations were noted if a typhoon hit Japan and flooded plants, or if a financial crisis or the 2001 terrorist attacks caused consumers to delay purchases.
It’s much harder to explain today’s US sales swings, which are impacted by consumers feeling an unstable economy, fuel prices gyrating, federal changes in emissions regulations, the elimination of federal tax credits for battery-electric vehicles, and a general feeling of uncertainty in just about everything. These changes are all pegged directly to the actions of the Trump administration.
But when the administration began rolling out tariffs more than a year ago, the pain was felt most acutely by German automakers without manufacturing plants in the US, while also sparking trade wars with long-time trading partners. With first-half sales numbers now reported by Germany’s trio of luxury brands – BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz – we have a better view of how all this uncertainty is playing out for those enduring companies.
It probably comes as little surprise that first-half 2026 car sales in the US for Audi, which faces a 25% tariff for its vehicles shipped from Germany, fell 17% (to 67,916 units) compared to first-half 2025. Audi has no US vehicle production, while rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz both have US plants which contributed to better sales and profitability. But it’s still not great for Mercedes-Benz, which also reported a dip in first-half sales, down 3.5% to 145,000 units.
Sure, BMW and Mercedes also face 25% tariffs for lower-volume cars built in Germany, but their SUV plants in South Carolina and Alabama, respectively, proved to be brilliant strategic moves more than 30 years ago.
BMW X6 Sales Up 45.1%
News is better for BMW, which saw sales in the US climb 4.7% (to 186,944 units compared to first-half 2025), earning the brand the luxury sales crown so far this year. More to the point, sales for BMW’s crossover SUVs, from X3 to X7, all produced in the US, were up a brisk 16% over first-half 2025. The top-selling X5, up 23.7%, found more than 41,000 new driveways in the first half, while the smaller X3 was up 29.8% to 37,671 deliveries. Those are some strong numbers.
BMW’s biggest gainer was the coupe-like X6 utility vehicle, up 45.1% to 6,822 units. The battery-electric iX crossover continued struggling, falling 48.9% in the first half to 3,445 deliveries.
US sales of coupes, sedans, roadsters, and compact crossovers (X1 and X2) were down 2.5% for the first half but up 12.8% in the second quarter, compared to Q2 2025. The 3-Series sedan, even before its full redesign is revealed later this year, was up 32.3% in the first half to 18,731 units, while 1,577 shoppers grabbed a Z4 roadster before it departs the lineup.
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