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Even in the lap, Alpina isn't a well-known name — but you'll probably know it in three years.
Because BMW has bought the ownership of this famous BMW modification brand from the founding family Bowensiepen. Starting in 2026, BMW will launch its first new product after taking over Alpina, and Alpina has officially become a member of the BMW family. Exactly how to use BMW has not yet been explained, but at present, it seems that Alpina should become a sub-brand that is on par with the M and i series.
Around 2016, the Alpina B4 was briefly introduced to the domestic market, and you can still find the few cars left on the rental platform. It is conceivable that the "new Alpina" officially launched by BMW after 2026 will most likely return to China.
It's a conversion plant, but it's not
In the past few decades, when it comes to "BMW Royal Modification Factory", the first thing that comes to mind is Alpina. For customers who are still not satisfied with the original BMW, the "inside" choice is M Power, and the "outside" is Alpina (and then it may be a pure modification brand such as AC Schnitzer).
In terms of identity, Alpina's previous role is much like today's Brabus or AMG to Mercedes-Benz before the "regularization" in 1999. First of all, it is a professional single-brand modification factory, changed and only changed BMW; secondly, it is closely related to the official relationship with the changed brand, and it can obtain information resources on modification before the launch of BMW's new car; finally it has T V certification to manufacture the whole vehicle, plus BMW authorization, Alpina is produced and sold in its own factory to produce and sell finished "modified cars".
Alpina currently sells around 2,000 vehicles a year and is said to be the smallest oem in Germany.
But in terms of role, Alpina is different from any BBA modification brand or high-performance brand we know.
Leaving aside the internally incubated M Power and Audi Sport (formerly the quattro division), Alpina is as famous as AMG and Brabus for racing (AMG) and high-performance modification (Brabus), but the final Alpina civilian finished car is not a hardcore painting style at all.
To sum up, Alpina's route is "old-school luxury and sophisticated sportsmanship":
They often have performance parameters close to the same model M version, but on the one hand, the data is never transgressed, on the other hand, the adjustment is more routine than M; they are far more important than M and AMG to interior upgrades, and their importance is almost equal to that of performance modifications;
Performance tuning and interior decoration are very old-fashioned and rustic, the pursuit of subjective driving experience, the enthusiasm for the honey juice of original wood decoration (in our opinion), there is a "closed door feeling" that is derailed from the times;
The appearance is very restrained and restrained compared to the modification identity, there are few changes to the original design of BMW, and more attention is paid to internal changes rather than external "modification feeling", and dense multi-spoke wheels are rare iconic features.
Even when it comes to being called a sibling of M Power, Alpina is often seen as a more "softened" version. If the former M was a muscle gain product of BMW injected with steroids, then Alpina is a full range of "plus money" upgrades, all aspects of your fine decoration.
The reason for the formation of such a unique and cold little Bourgeois sullen wind is related to The founder of Alpina, Burkard Bovensiepen. Typical self-hedonism makes Alpina's pursuit of "feeling" far more than KPIs for performance data, M Power always has to run to New North to prove itself, and Alpina only needs to take the owner-to-be on the German country road to twist.
In addition to the Alpina car brand, the long-named German owns a winery of the same name. The BMW acquisition also specifically states that the winery Alpina Wein is not affected and can continue to use the name Alpina...
Specific to the product line, Alpina's car name is easy to remember: gasoline models with B prefix + BMW series numbers, diesel models with D prefix + car series numbers, SUV "B/D" placed between X and number. For example, the B4 mentioned earlier is Alpina's original modified model based on the previous generation 4 series, because it is imported domestically, so it is naturally B4 instead of D4.
Of course, all of the above will be a thing of the past. BMW and Alpina jointly said that the current BMW Alpina modified car business will continue until 2025, and BMW will continue to support it as before. From 2026 onwards, BMW will begin to launch new models under the Alpina brand.
BMW's acquisition of only the Alpina car brand, not the entire Alpina company package. The original Alpina parent company will switch to the new brand BOWENSIEPEN (founder's last name), get involved in the classic car business and "other mobility solutions" from 2026, and provide BMW with engineering and development services.
But the new BOWENSIEPEN brand will not continue the retrofit business. An important driver of Alpina's choice to sell this time is the increasingly stringent Emissions Regulations in Europe, which put Alpina at risk as a small-volume oem. Just last year, CEO Andreas Bovensiepen just expressed a clear rejection of electric vehicles, so handing it over to BMW became a choice to retire.
Of course, compared with Alpina, more eyes are on bmw' side: What is the calculation of acquiring Alpina? How does BMW intend to use the brand?
Alpina, let M do back to M?
It should be noted in advance that BMW has no specific description of the future of Alpina, but only "enriches the diversity of its luxury car product line". So let's just blindly guess what role Alpina will play in the BMW family in 2026.
If you take Mercedes-Benz as a reference, an obvious option is "BMW's 'Maybach'". In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has listed AMG, Maybach and G as three high-end sub-brands (EQ as an electric sequence, and the three are hybridized), G as Mercedes-Benz's unique off-road line, AMG and Maybach's "sport-luxury" binary separation, and M Power and Alpina relationship has a certain similarity.
But this is by no means that Alpina will become a luxurious palace like Maybach – with Rolls-Royce doing this in a higher dimension, Alpina and Maybach clearly have no benchmarking relationship. It's just that Alpina's position relative to M Power is similar to Maybach's to AMG: both are high-performance sub-brands, more inclined to the other pole of luxury enjoyment.
A better way of saying that BMW needs Alpina to "free up" M Power.
Today we have become accustomed to M, AMG, RS these high-performance cars, its identity is the "top match" in their respective car series (such as M3 to 3 series): the power system is naturally the top, the car inside and outside the car can not fall, intelligent must be full, seat sound is top-notch, leather paved every corner.
Everything you need. Inside the car outside the car but where there are square inches of vacancies, eager to paste more than 200 logos; all kinds of details to pinch the sense of atmosphere to pull full, do not send small red books do not send ins are sorry for the car price invoice; if the car key is less M tricolor bar or apple tree, the owner is still greeting all the family members of the design department on the day of the sale of the car.
However, perhaps not everyone remembers that in the not so far past, that is, more than a decade ago, this was not the case. At that time, M Power was really just "Power", and the word "enjoyment" was a parallel line that had nothing to do with M forever, which M owner said that he wanted Harman Karton, and the next day had to be hung up with a confusing behavior award; the M mark was just scattered on the rear of the car and the steering wheel, and only the tri-color stitches on the seat were faintly revealing your identity.
Once upon a time, M car owners wanted this jinyi night walk, stuffy with trouble, talking and laughing, and the taste of white Ding not to be approached. It's hard to imagine traveling back in time to 2007 and telling an E92 or E46 owner that a decade later M and AMG will have 10,086-color mood lights, a dozen speakers and an electric trunk.
Not only M Power, like AMG and JCW, at that time still maintained a considerable part of the retrofit factory legacy, and the performance was seriously biased - not the in-house works that are full of koko scores and perfect today. Today's so-called high-performance cars, those special logos are cut off one by one (which may take a lot of time), they can be seamlessly integrated into their respective car series to become the top match, naturally without any sense of violation.
For Mercedes-Benz and AMG, this may not be a problem. However, the brand image of BMW and M Power ultimately needs to be more pure sports, and the increase in vehicle weight has objectively affected the performance differentiation. And now, Alpina is in exactly this position: natural is the balance of "luxury + sports". And M Power can be liberated, do not have to be trapped in water more than facets and add more water, but to pursue what it should pay more attention to.
At the same time, Alpina can also help flagship sequences such as the 7 Series to go one step further, partially filling the gap with Rolls-Royce.
In fact, this line of thinking Porsche has been used for many years, is the top sequence of the 911 Turbo or GT3 (not count GT2)? Porsche successfully separated "luxury sports" and "hardcore sports", and with the 911 Turbo pursuing "all but heavy", the 911 GT3 could be liberated to devote itself to "light and hard".
Alpina to BMW may play the role of the 911 Turbo to the 911 car series. Alpina to M may be like the 911 Turbo vs. 911 GT3. They're all upward extensions of the BMW brand, with one taking over the luxury movement and the other moving more easily towards pure performance.