Over the last few years, BMW has been working on bringing Alpina, a formerly independent tuner focused on BMWs, fully in-house. It bought the company back in 2022, and this year is when it finally becomes BMW Alpina.As such, BMW has steadily revealed things about Alpina in the first few months of this year, starting with the official introduction of the new logo, and a final special edition of the last model developed under the old regime. To cap off this sort of re-launch, BMW Alpina will finally reveal its first in-house creations at the Concourso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. We Think We Know The Model Alpina Will Reveal The Concourso d'Eleganza is held at the Villa d'Este hotel on Lake Como in Italy. It's a European counterpart to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, celebrating classic and high-end automobiles. So, it makes sense that BMW would call the event the "perfect setting" for its new high-end sub-brand that focuses on luxury, speed, and style.BMW As for what to expect, BMW said that the automaker as a whole would have two big reveals. While it's possible that the two could be a pair of Alpinas, it seems more likely that one of the slots is going to BMW's motorcycle division, which will be showing a custom bike. Just last week, a BMW board member revealed that the first BMW Alpinas will be based on the flagship models, the X7 and 7 Series, which narrows things down.There's already an Alpina version of the X7 on sale, the XB7, which had its last special edition revealed recently. At the moment, BMW is still working on a new generation of the X7, and that new model is supposed to go into production late next year. The in-house BMW Alpina XB7 we'll see will probably be based on that new model, and it definitely won't come out before the mainline version.BMW By the process of elimination, that leaves the 7 Series, which has traditionally been called the B7. The fact that there hasn't been an Alpina variant of this 7 Series generation makes it even more likely that this will be the first fully in-house BMW Alpina product.BMW What To Expect From This New Model We can also assume that this new B7 will get a sportier body kit, Alpina's signature multi-spoke wheels, retuned suspension, and plenty of power. The current 760i makes 536 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque from BMW's twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8. The B7 will probably use a version of that engine with much more power. The previous generation of B7 made 600 hp from the same basic engine, so that seems like the floor. In fact, the XB7 we've already mentioned makes 631 hp, again from that 4.4-liter engine.This generation of 7 Series also presents some interesting possibilities for an Alpina variant beyond what we're used to. It's the first generation to be fully electric, and the M70 version actually makes the most power of any 7 Series model at 650 hp. As such, an electric Alpina could make some sense. It would also be an exciting first for the Alpina name. BMW also has some impressive hybrid powertrains that could fit the bill, too. BMW gets more than 700 hp out of the M5's hybrid, and it could be a nice match for a bigger non-M model like an Alpina B7. Whatever BMW does, we'll find out the details in May during the concours event.
