In Cernobbio, on the sun-drenched shores of Lake Como, BMW just played the ace up its sleeve: Alpina. The designers whipped off the cover of the Vision BMW Alpina concept, a jaw-dropping 2+2 coupe that previews what the German brand will do with the newly acquired Alpina.
That’s no small thing. You see, Alpina may not be a household name, but it’s one of the most revered brands in the known automotive universe. Now that it’s officially under BMW’s corporate umbrella, we’ve all been waiting to see what the company would do with this sleeping giant. And, well, now we know. Sort of.
“Alpina has always represented a very specific idea of performance and refinement — where speed and comfort are complementary ambitions,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design. “Our role as the new custodians of this brand is to preserve this distinctiveness and shape it for a contemporary context.”
Wait, What’s Alpina?
Until BMW purchased it — the deal went through on January 1 this year — Alpina was a family-run tuning outfit based in Buchloe, Germany, a quick rip down the backroads from Munich. What started in 1965 as a tuning outfit making hot-rod BMWs and taking them racing gradually turned into a low-volume manufacturer of some of the best luxury cars money could buy. Alpina used BMWs as a base, and made them more comfortable, better looking, more torque-y, and fitted them with new interiors bathed in soft leather. In Europe, Alpina offered a full lineup but here in North America we only ever got a handful of high-end examples, including the XB7 SUV and B7 sedan.
Okay, so What’s BMW Alpina?
BMW Alpina is the new Alpina. Is it a shame BMW insisted on putting “BMW” in the name? Yes. But what did you expect? They own the company now. And their plan is to pitch Alpina into the white space between BMW and Rolls-Royce, above a 7 Series but below the Ghost.
“With Alpina we have a strong legacy and a global community, which we want to build on, while preserving the essence of what the brand stands for — speed, comfort and sophistication,” says er Viellechner, the man at the helm of the new BMW Alpina.
Burkard Bovensiepen, the founder of Alpina, understood that a comfortable driver is a faster driver, which, as BMW claims, is “something much of the automotive world has forgotten.” (We couldn’t agree more.) That’s why the new BMW Alpina will continue offering softer suspension. It’s called Comfort+, and it’s said to deliver the supple, refined character that made everyone love Alpina’s cars in the first place.
Tell Me About the Vision BMW Alpina Concept?
As design statements go, this is a strong one. We haven’t called a BMW beautiful in a long time, but it would certainly be an apt description of the Vision BMW Alpina concept. The two-door, four-seat machine is massive, clocking in at nearly 5.2 metres long. That’s proper luxury car territory. The shark nose is a design signature that traces back to the old Alpina B7 flagship, and it’s nice to see the firm’s trademark 20-spoke wheel design has returned as well. We’re surprisingly smitten by the blanked-off reinterpretation of BMW’s kidney grille.
The design is the work of Maximilian Missoni, who heads BMW Design for midsize and luxury cars as well as BMW Alpina. “In Vision BMW Alpina, we distill every element of the brand to its essence and apply it in a deeply modern and sophisticated way,” he explains. “Every detail reflects substance: in engineering, in materials, and in the story it tells. The statements it makes are subtle and revealed only on a closer read.”
You won’t find Alpina’s signature pin-stripe stickers along the side of this car, however. Instead, the brand has taken it a step further, and painted deco-lines underneath the clear coat. Classy.
We’re not as sold on the interior, with its multitude of screens, including the dreaded passenger display, which — however nice the leather may be — tends to make a car’s interior feel less like a luxury item and more like an office. (Luxury means less screen time, not more, if you ask us.)
So is it an EV? Nope. Under that long hood is a V8 engine. That’s right: no EV Alpina. At least not yet. There’s no word on power numbers or 0-100 km/h times, but frankly that’s never been what Alpina is all about.
The first customer car from the new BMW Alpina brand is slated for 2027. The only hint the company gave so far — apart from this Vision concept — is that it’ll be “inspired by the BMW 7 Series, but unmistakably BMW Alpina.” The bigger question is whether or not in the shift from family-run outfit to BMW sub-brand, the new BMW Alpina can retain the soul and swagger of the original. We’ll find out soon enough.
