The reasons for which are numerous and complex. Although 2018 still has a few months to go, the sales results from the third-quarter of the year are in and, as it turns out, BMW actually lost money. According to its own Q3 report and an analysis by Reuters, the German automaker reported a 27 percent drop in operating profit to $2 billion due to currency effects, higher raw material prices, higher research and development costs, and trade tensions between the US and China. Oh, and there’s also a price war going on in Europe. Interestingly, BMW reported a slight increase in overall vehicle deliveries for the period of July through September. However, overall operating return dropped from 8.6 percent to 4.4 percent, which was below BMW’s targeted range of 8 to 10 percent. “Along with the rest of the industry, we are increasingly confronted with adverse external factors, the negative impact of which cannot be fully offset," said Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter. BMW hopes to save...