The venue for the exclusive preview in early May was no coincidence: the Chiemgauhof Lakeside Retreat. The pool area, shielded from public view with sight lines across the lake, set the scene. Then the cover came off.

What emerged beneath it carries genuine automotive-historical weight. The Vision BMW Alpina is a statement of intent — honoring a brand that was born in 1965 in Buchloe, just west of Munich, and that has officially been part of the BMW Group since January 1, 2026.

The concept car made its first official public appearance a week later at Villa d'Este on Lake Como.

Vision BMW Alpina: Two logos, one message. (Image: BMW Alpina)

From Buchloe to the BMW Family

Burkard Bovensiepen founded BMW Alpina with a clear philosophy, drawing on roots in the typewriter industry: speed and comfort are not mutually exclusive.

While competitors in motorsport trimmed every gram they could, Bovensiepen added extra padding to the driver's seat. A relaxed driver, he believed, is a better driver.

Alpina has been recognized as an independent automaker since 1983. In March 2022, the BMW Group announced it would acquire the brand rights. The Bovensiepen family — most recently led by sons Florian and Andreas Bovensiepen — retained operational control through the end of 2025. The transition is now complete. Alpina is BMW.

Commanding presence: 22-inch wheels up front, 23-inch at the rear. (Image: BMW Alpina)

Filling the Gap Between M and Rolls-Royce

The strategic logic is straightforward. «BMW Alpina fills the gap between BMW and Rolls-Royce in our portfolio and opens up additional potential at the very top of the market,» said Oliver Viellechner, the vice president heading the new group brand.

This is not simply about adding sporting edge in the manner of the M cars. It is about refinement, pace, and composed comfort. The leather used, for instance, takes its cue from Rolls-Royce: full-grain hide sourced from select tanneries in the Alpine region.

With Alpina, BMW is staking out a new niche. The integration is broadly comparable to AMG within Mercedes or Cupra within the Volkswagen Group — though the positioning is distinctly different.

The concept car's cockpit. (Image: BMW Alpina)

A Design Heritage, Skillfully Updated

The Vision BMW Alpina stretches 5,200 millimeters in length — wide, low, and authoritative. A sweeping coupe roofline flows rearward over four seats.

Power comes from a V8 engine carrying the signature Alpina sound: sonorous at low revs, forceful at the top of the range. This is not an electric concept, and that is a deliberate choice.

The defining design motif is what Alpina calls the «speed feature line»: angled at six degrees, it runs from the lower front corners all the way to the tail, giving the car its visual structure.

The historic Alpina «Shark Nose» reinterprets the BMW kidney grille as a sculptural, three-dimensional element, drawing inspiration from the B7 Coupe of the late 1970s — a car built on the E24 6 Series that first applied Alpina's philosophy to a genuine luxury automobile.

A moment of automotive history: BMW Alpina is back. (Image: BMW Alpina)

The Art of the Second Look

«Every detail embodies substance — in engineering, in materials, and in the story it tells. The statements are deliberately subtle, revealing themselves only on closer inspection,» said Maximilian Missoni, who oversees design for BMW's upper mid-range, flagship, and Alpina lines.

This principle of the «second read» runs through the entire concept.

The decorative lines that have been an Alpina hallmark since 1974 have been modernized and applied directly to the body flanks beneath the clearcoat. A warm white tone defines the daytime running light signature, inspired by the first light breaking over the Bavarian Alps. The 22- and 23-inch wheels revisit the 20-spoke design that has belonged to Alpina since 1971.

Inside, the speed feature line continues, dividing light and dark zones. Behind the center console, a set of crystal glasses rises on a self-opening mechanism — each piece engraved with 20 decorative lines, tilted at six degrees, and softly illuminated.

The headlights as a chromatic homage to an Alpine sunrise. (Image: BMW Alpina)

Production Model Coming Soon

Concept car presentations often unfold in an atmosphere of polished, slightly detached professionalism. Seasoned audiences have seen it all. At the Chiemsee, though, the reaction was something closer to genuine excitement.

Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design, put the ambition plainly: «The Vision BMW Alpina demonstrates how these qualities can be expressed in a modern, refined design language, and points the direction in which we will take the brand.»

The first production model of the new BMW Alpina era is expected to launch next year, reportedly based on the 7 Series platform — but unmistakably Alpina, and understood to feature a combustion engine. A second model is said to follow shortly after. At BMW, production cars typically stay close to the design of their concept predecessors.