Overall Price Reduction opens at BMW Group's headquarters, where everyone is seething at Heifeng. No one is angrier than Dujie Qiaopu, the head of the group, who feels as if Heifeng has personally carved losses into BMW's balance sheet and torched the brand's carefully built image in China. Cursing, he admits there is one bitter upside: they have used the uproar to purge uncooperative dealers. It hurts, he says, but at least the company will no longer be held hostage by intermediaries. Then he turns to his incoming China chief, Xinke Baoluo, and lays down a new plan for the market in China. Service must meet European and American standards, and domestic pricing, excluding imports, must align with Europe and the United States. Xinke's task is simple to state and hard to do: win back BMW's reputation and market share in China.
Xinke lands the next day and proves why he was chosen. In three days, he consolidates control of the China branch, then uses BMW's official Weibo to announce sweeping price cuts on all locally built models. He also clamps down on dealers, ordering them to follow the group's standards for service and fees. The news detonates across China's car market like a small nuke. Rivals stare, stunned. After being battered by scandal, BMW has not curled up; it has slashed sticker prices, promising to sync domestic tags with Europe, again with imports excluded.
The first reaction from competitors is panic mixed with fury. Volkswagen and Audi, along with other marques, had privately agreed to hold the line on pricing. Now BMW has slipped the leash and sprinted off, which leaves the rest of them exposed. Suppose BMW drags prices down; who will buy their cars? Grumbling in their boardrooms changes nothing. If they stand pat, sales will die on the lot.
Consumers are less impressed than the industry. Many shrug or sneer, where was this sincerity before? After years of nickel and diming, after the scandal and the headlines, you cut prices and try to play the victim. A cheaper BMW is still a BMW with a bruised reputation. Xinke knows this perfectly well. Even if he drags every price tag to European levels, the brand damage will not fade in a week. It will take time and steady behavior for people to forget.
The punishment that set this all in motion has been severe. Regulators have announced their findings, the company and many dealers have been hammered, and fines have reached billions of yuan, the most significant penalty ever levied on a carmaker in China. The intent is obvious: to clean up the domestic auto market. BMW has made the chicken to warn the monkeys. The former China boss, Steve Cien, becomes the scapegoat, recalled to Germany, and quietly retires.
Xinke is not a figurehead. Groomed by Dujie Qiaopu, he previously ran BMW's business in the United States and at one point pushed the brand to a 10 percent share of that competitive, open, luxury-heavy market. That track record is why he has been moved to China to steady the ship. Even so, he understands that after the female doctor's rights-defense incident and the formal fine, BMW's recovery will not be quick. The price cuts are a starting pistol, not a finish line.
Once the announcement goes live, the entire luxury segment scrambles. BMW's sudden move throws pricing into chaos and overlap. Take the C-class BMW B515 as an example. Its China starting price had been ¥520,000, about $72,000, roughly ¥7.2 per dollar. After syncing to Europe and America, the tag drops to about ¥400,000, around $55,600. That is a single cut of more than ¥100,000, roughly $13,900. Ordinary C-class sedans from other brands now sit in an awkward wedge. Audi had already been leaning toward lower prices, and BMW's cut made everyone else's position more precarious.
Executives at rival marques grind their teeth. Yesterday, BMW was a fellow traveler; today, it appears it has joined Audi in stirring the pot. Disgust changes nothing. With BMW downshifting prices, holding the old line is suicide. One by one, Volkswagen, Audi, and others issue their own announcements, eyes watering as they trim across their B- and C-class portfolios. Most align domestic tags with Europe and the United States for locally built models, and keep import pricing separate, which still means real money lost in the short term.
Out on the street, the mood is mixed. The value tempts some shoppers, yet many still want to see how BMW behaves. Service quality will decide whether the cuts are genuine contrition or a tactic. Xinke's orders to standardize fees and raise service to Western levels meet now. If dealers comply, goodwill will inch back. If they do not, the market will punish them, price cuts or no.
Inside BMW's tower, the strategy is clear. Take the pain now, simplify dealer relationships, rebuild the brand with better treatment at the service desk, and let the lower, cleaner prices speak daily. The company is not trying to erase the scandal with one gesture. It tries to make the market forget through a long stretch of regular, honest business.
As for Heifeng, he is not in the scene, but his shadow is on every page. His squeeze on predatory practices forced this reset. BMW's fury at him is proof that his pressure landed. The entire industry is now reorganizing around a reality he helped create: lower prices, more transparent fees, better service. The field is more level today than yesterday, and that will change how everyone plays tomorrow.