More than 60% of new BMWs registered in Germany in the first quarter of 2026 came with xDrive. That’s the first time the brand has cleared that line, and at this rate the two-thirds mark isn’t far off. A year ago the figure was 54.9%. The trend had looked like it was leveling out around 50% — turns out it wasn’t. For context: Audi sold nearly 10,000 fewer Quattro units in the same period and sits at 49.5% AWD penetration. Mercedes is lower, at 44.7% for 4Matic.
The obvious explanation for BMW’s success is the X-series SUVs, where rear-wheel drive isn’t even available in Germany anymore. The xDrive rate there is around 80%. But passenger cars now tell a similar story: 41.9% of BMW’s sedan and coupe registrations go out the door with all-wheel drive. The shift isn’t just SUV buyers hedging against winter roads.
In 2009, xDrive was on fewer than 1 in 6 BMWs sold in Germany (14.9%). By Q1 2026 it’s 60.2% — a fourfold increase over 17 years. The only real pause came around 2014–2016, where growth stalled between 34–36%. That coincides with a period when fuel prices were falling and there was less pressure on buyers to justify the AWD premium. The 2021–2022 jump to 53% was the first time xDrive crossed the majority threshold — and it held there, suggesting it wasn’t a fluke of one particular model year or launch cycle.
At the model level, the 8 Series numbers are telling the full story. One customer in Q1 bought a rear-drive 840i. Every other 8 or M8 buyer chose xDrive. In the 5 Series, 61% went all-wheel drive. In the 3 Series, nearly half did. Some of this reflects genuine customer preference. Some of it reflects the fact that BMW has removed rear-drive options from many of its higher-output variants, so buyers who want the performance spec have no real decision to make. The 7 Series facelift (G70 LCI) follows the pattern — the rear-drive i7 eDrive50 is discontinued, its slot taken by the i7 50 xDrive.
What’s quietly changed is how BMW talks about it. The Neue Klasse iX3 and i3 don’t carry xDrive badges anywhere on the body. The facelifted 7 Series drops the badge too in some markets (the U.S. retains it).
The headliner for later this year is the BMW M2 M xDrive — the first M compact sport car with four driven wheels. The M xDrive system runs rear-biased and includes a full rear-wheel-drive mode, which matters if you’re the kind of M2 buyer who’d otherwise be skeptical. Whether that’s enough to win them over is another question.
[Source: BimmerToday]
