VISION BMW ALPINA: SPEED, REFINED.

• A one-of-one design study signaling a new era for BMW ALPINA.
• Reimagines the brand’s heritage with contemporary purpose, aesthetics, and technology.
• Deepens the defining principles of BMW ALPINA: speed, comfort, and sophistication.
• Demonstrates the BMW Group’s commitment to preserving and elevating BMW ALPINA.

Woodcliff Lake/Cernobbio – May 15, 2026… Revealed at the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the Vision BMW ALPINA is a design study that heralds a new era for a brand defined by extreme capability, sophistication, and the mastery of both performance and comfort.

“Alpina has always represented a very specific idea of performance and refinement—where speed and comfort are complementary ambitions. Our role as the new custodians of this brand is to preserve this distinctiveness and shape it for a contemporary context,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design. “Vision BMW ALPINA shows how these qualities can be expressed with discipline and modernity, suggesting what our direction is for this brand as we move it into the future.”

DESIGN AND FORM: THE SHAPE OF SPEED

The Vision BMW ALPINA is a respectful interpretation of the brand’s heritage, shaped by the most contemporary creative instincts. At 204.7 inches in length, its presence is substantial: wide, low, and confident. The coupé roofline is long and raked, its form immediately signals both speed and the ability to accommodate four adults in genuine comfort. A V8 powertrain drives the experience, tuned to produce the characteristic notes of the Alpina exhaust: rich and deep at low speed, sonorous at high revs.

“In Vision BMW ALPINA, we distill every element of the brand to its essence and apply it in a deeply modern and sophisticated way,” says Maximilian Missoni, head of BMW Design Midsize & Luxury Cars and BMW ALPINA. “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.”

The front end is defined by powerful volumes and a forward-leaning stance that promises speed without overstatement. The shark nose—a signature that traces back to the Alpina B7—reinterprets BMW’s kidney grille as a three-dimensional sculpture that leads the car’s form and frames the brand emblem with quiet confidence.

From this shark nose, the exterior is organized around a single visual axis: the speed feature line. Rising from the lower front corners at a six-degree inclination, it runs along the side of the body and wraps around the rear—assertive enough to suggest motion, controlled enough to remain refined. 

HALLMARKS AND PRINCIPLES: “SECOND READ” SOPHISTICATION 

Subtle secondary details reward attention without demanding it. This “Second Read” principle runs throughout the Vision BMW ALPINA.

Deco-lines have been part of Alpina’s language since 1974. For the Vision BMW ALPINA, the modernized deco-lines are distilled and painted on the side of the body beneath the clear coat—a quiet gesture that reflects how the brand’s defining details can be adapted to what comes next.

Inward-facing return surfaces are treated with particular care, finished in a dark metallic tone that rewards a closer read. This approach is inspired by the BMW 507, which uses chrome only on the inside of its kidney grilles.

The shark nose captures the same “Second Read” sophistication: the inner surfaces feature a finely scaled signature Deco-line graphic, while a concealed, softly backlit perimeter reveals it only when active.

A warm white tone characterizes the daytime running lights and traces the kidney surrounds, inspired by the first light over the Bavarian Alps. Clear-cut illuminated crystals add a precise highlight within the slender lamps.

The elliptical four-pipe exhaust remains, as does the “ALPINA” lettering—reinterpreted as a machined, polished metal element on the lower front apron. The 22-inch front and 23-inch rear wheels feature the 20-spokes design that has been a constant at Alpina since 1971.

INTERIOR AND DETAILS: ARCHITECTURAL CLARITY

The cabin is generous in every sense: space, material quality, and the care with which technology has been integrated. Architectural volumes define the layout, with each element designed as a standalone form, not absorbed into a homogeneous interior.

The six-degree speed feature line continues through the interior, dividing the darker upper segment and the lighter lower segment. Full-grain leather— sourced from producers across the Alpine region—pairs with stitching inspired by the Deco-lines.

Craft details are restrained but well considered: a bridge stitch inspired by historic steering wheel hand-stitching appears sparingly in heritage blue and green colors, while a watchmaking-inspired beveling technique was used for the metal components, combining satin and polished finishes. Clear-cut crystal is reserved for the controls that shape how the automobile drives, underlining the value BMW ALPINA places on the driving experience itself.

Behind the rear console, a glass water bottle sits beside BMW ALPINA crystal glasses that rise on a self-deploying mechanism. Each glass is engraved with 20 deco-lines and features a six-degree rim profile, held by concealed magnets and softly lit against the open-grain center console.

A COMFORTABLE DRIVER IS A FASTER DRIVER

Burkard Bovensiepen understood something much of the automotive world has forgotten: a comfortable driver is a faster driver. That belief remains central to the Vision BMW ALPINA. Alpina offers Comfort+, a setting beyond the standard BMW comfort calibration that delivers a more supple, refined character, and it is retained here.

BMW Panoramic iDrive, including the new passenger screen, spans the dashboard with a digital UI language crafted specifically for BMW ALPINA. Heritage blue and green are introduced with discipline, intensifying as the driver moves from Comfort+ to Speed mode within the BMW Panoramic Vision head-up display. The background imagery is equally considered. The Alpine landscape depicted is an exact rendering of the mountain range visible when looking south from Buchloe.

ROOTED IN THE BRAND’S ORIGINS

The Alpina story began in 1965 in Buchloe, Germany, a small Bavarian town in the shadow of the Alps. Burkard Bovensiepen—destined for a career in typewriter manufacturing—chose instead high-performance tuning, founding Alpina and then refining BMW road and racing cars. From the outset, his philosophy was clear: speed and comfort were complementary, not competing ambitions.

In endurance racing, while rivals stripped weight, Burkard added extra padding to the driver’s seat: he understood that a more comfortable driver is a faster driver. That insight carried over to the road cars that followed, celebrated for composure and sophistication at high speed over long distances.

ALPINA B7 COUPÉ: A POINT OF MATURITY

The Alpina B7 coupé of the late 1970s marked a turning point: Alpina’s philosophy was applied to a luxury car, and every model that followed was recognized as luxurious. Based on the BMW E24 6 Series, its long hood, wide stance, and shark nose looked fast even at rest, while the cabin could comfortably carry four people across a continent. The Vision BMW ALPINA is the next chapter of that story.

BMW ALPINA—AN EXCLUSIVE BRAND WITHIN THE BMW GROUP

BMW ALPINA became an exclusive brand within the BMW Group in 2026, bringing proven stewardship and a clear responsibility: to understand what Alpina means to those who cherish it and to honor that in what follows. 

"BMW ALPINA fills a gap in our portfolio between BMW and Rolls-Royce as 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 build on, while preserving the essence of what the brand stands for—speed, comfort and sophistication,“ says Oliver Viellechner, head of BMW ALPINA.

Next year, customers will be able to experience the first model of the BMW ALPINA brand—inspired by the BMW 7 Series, but unmistakably BMW ALPINA.

BMW Group in the United States

BMW Group began operations in the U.S. over 50 years ago. In addition to the sales, marketing, and distribution of BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce, and BMW Motorrad vehicles, BMW Group’s business in the U.S. spans 30 locations in 12 states including BMW Group Financial Services, BMW Manufacturing, Designworks, BMW Technology Office USA, and BMW i Ventures. The company’s U.S. plant in South Carolina is the largest single BMW production facility in the world and the global center of competence for BMW Sports Activity Vehicles. The BMW Group sales organization is represented by a nationwide network of 355 BMW retailers, 147 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. Taken together, BMW Group’s business activities in the U.S. provide and support over 120,000 jobs and contribute more than $43.3 billion to the U.S. economy annually. For more information about BMW Group’s business and products in the U.S., please visit: PressClub USA.

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