The feeling around Alpina’s wholesale absorption into the BMW Group, which completed with the transfer of the Alpina trademark rights on January 1, was not one of optimism when it was first announced. At worst, we feared the name would be mothballed and at best, that Alpina cars would lose the appreciable individuality from the BMWs on which they were based. With the launch of BMW Alpina, we’ve gotten our first clues as to what this new era may entail.
First, BMW calls BMW Alpina ‘an exclusive standalone brand under the BMW Group Umbrella’, which assuages those worst-case fears that the name would simply be retired. Given ongoing conjecture around the future of internal combustion, being its own brand, able to fall under any ‘low volume’ classifications that may be granted immunity from any future legislative pressures, could be a masterstroke on BMW’s part.
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