Before BMW bought Alpina, the tuner company's mission was to take BMW models and create a different flavor by pushing them deeper into luxury territory. Now that Alpina is fully under BMW's control and the work is done, BMW finally pulled the wraps off its Alpina Vision Car. And it looks like Alpina's ethos is preserved.BMWBMW Group Chief Designer Adrian van Hooydonk confirmed Alpina has its own dedicated design team and intends to carry on the original spirit of Alpina with faster and more luxurious BMW high-end models. As a defining vehicle for the brand, van Hooydonk told journalists at the 2026 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este that the Alpina Vision concept is an extremely important vehicle, even saying it's the most important concept he's presented.But what makes this concept more significant than his work on Mini and Rolls-Royce acquisitions? Insights Into BMW's Brand Acquisition Strategies BMWAs we can see, the Alpina Vision Car doesn't exactly follow the current BMW design language, despite being built on the current BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe platform. The most obvious example is the throwback-style sharknose front end, coming to a point in a way that hasn't been seen on a BMW for over 20 years. According to van Hooydonk, that front-end design is a direct reference to the Alpina B7 Turbo Coupe, which was a 30-model run by Alpina and based on the 1982 BMW 6 Series Coupe.“I would say that yes, [it's important] because we have not many brands – we have Mini, Rolls-Royce, BMW Motorrad, and BMW," said van Hooydonk. "I’ve been with the company for quite a while. I wasn’t there when BMW was founded, to be honest, but I was there when we acquired Mini and Rolls-Royce, so I know how BMW goes about bringing a new brand into the fold."“An Alpina is for connoisseurs, meaning people that love driving, they like driving fast, but they don’t want to communicate to the outside world that they bought a race car. That would be an M customer. And therefore we thought that is the position, that is the opportunity for Alpina.”– Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group chief designerAs van Hooydonk has been with BMW through its acquisitions of Mini and Rolls-Royce, he knows the game plan to retain the brand's DNA and move it forward: study the history, identify what matters, keep it, and build from there. It has worked incredibly well for Mini and Rolls-Royce, and it looks like BMW is respecting the history of Alpina as well. Respecting Alpina, Not Competing With M BMW BMW has already spoken at length about the Alpina sub-brand not competing with the M division road cars, but that has now been visually defined by the Alpina Vision concept. Referring to the history, van Hooydonk spoke of BMW's direct relationship with Alpina before the acquisition started in 2022.“Every time we designed a new BMW, Mr. Bovensiepen Senior, when he was still alive, would come in, look at the car, and then he would go back and think about what he could do to it," he explained. "But there was always this strive for good coexistence, because he was very smart in the sense that he always looked at BMW’s product portfolio including M and decided always to make an offer that M or BMW didn’t already have.”For those drawing a parallel between BMW acquiring Alpina and Mercedes acquiring AMG, there are definitely similarities. But Mercedes picked up AMG in 1999, while AMG was still well positioned to tune the hell out of Mercedes engines. According to van Hooydonk, that 20-plus year difference helped Alpina reach the conclusion that it was time to move forward with BMW, rather than continue on its own."Their business was founded on tuning engines in the times that you could do a different camshaft and different carburetors,” van Hooydonk said. “So it was for them, I think, also a natural way of things to have this merge.”Speed is going to be a large part of Alpina's character, as in top speed, along with comfort. But Alpina fans will have to wait for B3 or B5 model equivalents, though, as BMW is working the brand from the top down. It starts with the return of the B7, based on BMW's flagship 7 Series sedan, packing pure V8 power with no hybrids in the mix. As for when it will debut, BMW hasn't yet announced any official timeframe.BMW Alpina Vision Car 3-1
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