Alpina has always occupied a rare room in the BMW universe. The Marque combines handmade craftsmanship, tailor -made performance and reserved luxury in a way that does not do BMW itself. Now the brand is under the full management of BMW questions about its future direction. In an interview with YouTube Channel Motomantv Podcast, the company’s CEO, Andreas Bovensiepen, gives us the place where the brand could go.
Alpina will continue to focus on luxury
Andreas begins that Alpina is not part of everything BMW does. But “to my knowledge,” he says, “we will now focus on the big cars that are now on the GKL class segment.” GKL refers to “Grand Class Luxury” or the platform that underpins the most luxurious models in BMW. The 7 Series, 8 and X7 are all examples of GKL vehicles, and – maybe not by accident – you can find examples for all three in the USA until recently.
GKL differs from UKL (German for “Lower Class”), KKL (3 Series, 4 Series, X3, X4, Z4) and MKL (5 Series, X5, X6, IX), segments in which Alpina is present at an international level. Despite the claim that BMW focuses on a “luxury layer”, he also says that these alpina variants are nowhere to go with lower alpina.
“In Europe we have 3 series, we have 4 series and this type of cars. As far as I know, you have no plans to prevent this way of ending this way.” Of course, that doesn’t mean they come to America. But it’s good news for Alpina fans in Europe. He gives us a little more insights into where BMW Alpina could position.
“You are happy to say: ‘You have BMW, you have Rolls-Royce and of course there is some space in between,” Bovensiepen continues. Alpina always sat over more pedestrians -BMW models, but historically there was a lot of headroom between Alpina and rolls. For example, while the Alpina XB7 maintains $ 156,000, a Rolls-Royce costs more than twice, from around $ 405,000. The same applies to an “entry level”. The spirit, which is technically positioned at the bottom of the RR stack, starts around 350,000 US dollars. The Alpina B8, the Tuner’s Twist on the 8 Series Gran Coupé, started at 151,500 US dollars.
Next on
In the past, we have heard rumors that were not confirmed by BMW or Bovensiepen that a BMW-tied alpina B7 could arrive with the enclosed 7 Series and even with a purely electric alpina X7. However, it remains to be seen whether one of these plans will be realized.
Alpina also has other goals
While Alpina will have fresh new models that come down the pipeline, there are other options for how the company remains busy. According to Bovensiepen, around 40,000 automobiles packed with Alpina are still produced on the street of the 60,000 produced. They will all break at some point, and Bovensiepen says Alpina will make sure that parts for cars that are made in full and complete in the last “12 to 15 years”. The brand will also do its best to record vintage drivers. “Of course we are unable to deliver carpentry for cars from the end of the 1960s or in the early 1970s,” he says. However, Alpina will be there for everything from the “late 70s” to support the source parts.
It will be interesting to see how Alpina enters his new era under official BMW administration. So far it sounds like no dramatic vibrations. Historically speaking, Alpina has always shown a different kind of exclusivity than conventional BMW and even M offers. We are glad that BMW holds it that way.
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
