After 60 years of independence, the Alpina brand has been brought fully under BMW’s control, with the aim to fill in the gap between BMW and Rolls-Royce, and make the nameplate and the models it’s found on even more distinctive and desirable. Head of BMW Alpina Oliver Viellechner says “we see even more potential in the high-end segment. With Alpina we have a strong legacy and a global community, which we want to built on, while preserving the essence of what the brand stands for — speed, comfort and sophistication.”
At Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the company has revealed the new Vision BMW Alpina concept, a fabulous two-door coupe that previews the direction the Alpina brand is going in — and it also seems to be a clear preview of a next-generation 8 Series coupe. At 204.7 inches long it’s more than a foot longer than the now-discontinued last-gen 8 Series coupe, and don’t you worry, it’s got a V8 engine.
A BMW with a twist
New Alpina models will still be badged as BMWs, and the Vision concept clearly wears BMW’s Neue Klasse design language, but with a number of Alpina-specific twists. The shark nose front end has large angular three-dimensional kidneys surrounded by soft white light, which is said to look like the first light over the Bavarian Alps. Thin LED running lights come off the top edges of the kidneys, with additional light elements placed in the intakes below. It’s a cleaner look than basically all other new Bimmers, and the dual lines that extend down the front of the hood are less prominent than on cars like the 7 Series and M3.
The roofline is steeply raked, extending nearly to the edge of the trunk. The Hofmeister kink is still present, of course, and pretty nicely resolved. The lower corners of the front bumper start a “speed feature line” that rises across the lower body at a six-degree angle, with almost no other creases along the sides other than lines that accentuate the width of the fenders, and the trapezoidal side skirts. Out back, there are split taillights that follow the contour of the trunk, which has a thick center section echoing the lines flanking the emblem on the hood that runs from the bottom of the diffuser to the base of the rear window. It’s got quad round tailpipes, an Alpina signature, and BMW says they make a sound that’s “rich and deep at low speed, sonorous at high revs.”
Made you look
BMW says the car is defined by a “second read” principle, meaning there are a lot of subtle details you might not notice at first glance. Alpina’s classic deco-line graphics are present, painted onto the body sides underneath the clearcoat, and the backlit grille surrounds are etched with similar lines. Inward-facing surfaces like those etched surrounds are painted a darker metallic color, inspired by the classic 507 roadster that only used chrome on the inner parts of its kidneys. A three-dimensional Alpina script is mounted low in the bumper, and the nameplate is also found on the trunk below the BMW roundel.
The wheels measure 22 inches in front and 23 inches in the rear, and they have a thin 20-spoke design, which Alpina has used since 1971. Aside from the small side mirrors and lack of a good place to put front and rear license plates, the Vision BMW Alpina’s exterior design looks extremely production-ready — before you mention the tiny wing-like door handles, the next-gen X5 will be using those.
Barely a concept
The inside looks pretty dang production-ready as well, especially as the dashboard is basically identical to the facelifted 7 Series. It’s got the parallelogram center touchscreen and new passenger screen attached, plus the Panoramic Vision display at the base of the windshield. BMW’s weird new steering wheel design is present, though this concept has spokes that are more angled inward. The infotainment system has an Alpina-specific design and layout with backgrounds showing an exact rendering of the mountain range visible from south of Buchloe, Alpina’s home.
That six-degree line is also used inside to create the two-tone color split, with the full-grain leather (sourced from the Alpine region) getting deco-line stitching in Alpina’s blue and green colors. Ambient lighting is used nicely throughout, wrapping around the dashboard and across the door panels, where it then completely follows the shape of the side windows, a detail I really hope makes production. Metal parts are made with beveling techniques inspired by watchmaking that pair polished and satin finishes. The center console and door panels have much simpler designs, and there are new crystal controls for the shifter and drive mode selector.
The first production model is coming next year
The two back seats look really spacious, and the console back there slides open to reveal a glass water bottle and two crystal glasses that are engraved with 20 deco lines and have a rim angled at, you guessed it, six degrees. The glasses are presented by a self-deploying mechanism, and they’re held by concealed magnets. While I doubt the production car would get quite as fancy a setup, enough other cars on sale are offered with crystal glasses that I bet we’ll at least see something similar.
Ex-Polestar designer Maximilian Missoni is the new chief of Alpina design (as well as BMW’s midsize and luxury cars), and he says “we distill every element of the brand to its essence and apply it in a deeply modern and sophisticated way. 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. This interplay between purity and richness defines our approach to BMW ALPINA design.”Â
The first production Alpina to come under BMW’s full ownership will be a version of the 7 Series (specifically, BMW says it’s “inspired by” the 7), to be revealed next year. We’ve already seen spy shots of the Alpina version of the next-gen X7, which is Alpina’s best-seller in the U.S., and here’s hoping we’ll get even more new Alpina models on our side of the pond — think about how cool an Alpina version of the new i3 would be. Head of BMW Group design Adrian van Hooydonk promises the company will be preserving Alpina’s distinctiveness while bringing it into the future, and if this concept is anything to go by, it’ll be a bright future.
