Despite having made its own version of just about every BMW variant you can think of, Alpina never made its own version of the X6. Now that BMW owns Alpina, rather than it existing as its own manufacturer that just partnered wtih BMW, that’s about to change. A recent trademark filing, unearthed by CarBuzz, shows that BMW recently filed for the “XB6” name with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
OK, so automakers file trademarks for all sorts of names all the time. They like to future-proof themselves, so if they think of a name that they might want to use in the future, and it hasn’t already been trademarked, they call dibs before anyone else does. However, this doesn’t seem like one of those times. For starters, no other automaker uses ALPINA’s “XB” or “XD” naming structure, so it isn’t like another brand was going to steal it. Additionally, BMW is redefining how Alpina is going to fit in its model lineup, now that the brand is fully under the BMW Group umbrella, so new models are likely to come.
Since it’s an “XB” name, such an Alpina would have a gas engine, not a diesel. Otherwise BMW would have trademarked “XD6.” With the current X6 nearing the end of its lifecycle, it would make sense that any Alpina version would come with the next generation of X6. How that fits into the Neue Klasse is still unknown. But since the regular X6 is said to come with both internal combustion and electric powertrains, it will be interesting to see which BMW chooses for ALPINA.
This also makes me optimistic about Alpina’s future under BMW. Not because it’s making yet another SUV (that much is unfortunately inevitable), but because BMW will seemignly keep Alpina models as their own separate thing. When the news broke of BMW’s Alpina acquisition, I immediately feared that the latter would become just a top-tier luxury trim level, like the “M Sport” of luxury. Thankfully, it seems that BMW is keeping Alpina models separate.
