Alpina, known for its elegant style and strong performance, is regarded by the majority of fans as BMW's royal modification factory, and today (3/11) officially announced that it was acquired by the BMW Group and incorporated into the company, becoming a new member of the Bavarian Car Factory Group after Mini and Rolls-Royce. The acquisition symbolizes the continuation of Alpina, a small refit factory that has been operating for more than half a century, and further expands the product line of the parent group, but in the future Alpina has also confirmed that it will stop the "conversion into a car" business in 2025 and will only continue the related after-sales and parts supply business. It is speculated that BMW's purchase of Alpina was in the hands of the internal combustion engine and modified accessories technology developed by Alpina before the comprehensive transformation of electrification, and the financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed in detail by the two parties.
Although Alpina is mainly based on modified BMW cars, it is a car manufacturer recognized by the German government, the brand is unique with the sparse output of hand-made, and in close cooperation with the original factory, it can directly obtain the frame, body and other components, and assemble them on the BMW production line, which also makes its products have excellent modification quality.
Alpina continues to provide after-sales support to car owners, but confirms that it will end the conversion to car sales business in 2025!
It is speculated that the acquisition is related to the "industrial transformation" mentioned in BMW's official press release. Automakers are moving toward electrification, and increasingly stringent verification procedures such as environmental protection and emissions are a challenge for small independent car manufacturers that are relatively scarce, so it is a big boost to the survival of the brand by taking over to BMW. The most shocking thing is that Alpina also confirmed that it will stop the "conversion into a car" business in 2025, which can be speculated that BMW does not rule out that during the transition period of full electrification, Alpina's related internal combustion engine power upgrade technology will be in its hands.
BMW said that the way the two sides cooperate after the acquisition will not change, Alpina will continue to produce, develop and sell until 2025, the car it builds will continue to hang the brand logo and register in its name, after which it will no longer carry out the modification business, and BMW will arrange for existing employees to transfer to the group. Existing owners do not have to worry about warranty issues, Alpina guarantees that in the future will continue to provide complete after-sales service and original spare parts.
While the end of Alpina's conversion business is expected, 2021 was the alpina brand's best-selling year in history, with more than 2,000 hand-built converted cars delivered worldwide, a considerable success for independent automakers. After joining the group in the future, whether it can replicate the good results created by Mercedes-Benz after the acquisition of AMG, or distinguish it from its own M department, or BMW has long held the above-mentioned technical property rights just to obtain Alpina-related technical rights, which deserves the continuous attention of car fans.