I think BMW alleviated some of the fears fans had about its new ownership of Alpina, with the stunning concept that debuted in Lake Como. The Vision BMW Alpina is a gorgeous grand touring coupe that proves the brass in Munich is willing to take bold leaps with the brand, by making special unique models and not just reducing it to a trim level. And it might even continue that specialness at the customer level, as BMW is thinking about opening standalone Alpina stores.
Alpinas will mostly be sold at BMW dealerships, however, even there they’ll be separated. Alpina will have a separate section of the dealership, to keep it and its customers feeling special. Hey, you don’t want an Alpina B7 customer picking out stitching colors next to the family picking a random X1 off the lot to lease. That would be disgusting. Intra-dealership separation might not be enough for the Bavarians, though. Completely separate Alpina locations might be in the works.
“In terms of the flagship stores, ALPINA will have locations within dealerships, but there could also be standalone ALPINA locations,” BMW’s Head of Design for Upper Mid-Size, Luxury Class, and ALPINA, Maximilian Missoni told BMWBlog. “That’s not defined. These talks are going on with the markets at the moment. The idea is that definitely those spaces will be clearly ALPINA branded and quite differentiated, and will have dedicated areas for customer interaction for individualization.”
This isn’t entirely shocking, considering that BMW even has some separate Mini dealerships. So having specific locations for one of BMW’s most exclusive brands makes a ton of sense. BMW will have to be careful not to step on Rolls-Royce’s toes, so it won’t offer as much customization with Alpina, but those locations would still allow customers to get a bit wild with their orders.
It will be interesting to see just how far BMW is willing to go with Alpina, in terms of customer experience, customization, and exclusivity. While the Vision BMW Alpina isn’t going into production, a version of the newly facelifted 7 Series will be Alpina’s newest car. And if BMW is really considering totally separate stores for the brand, that upcoming B7 better be significantly more special than the standard car.