Alpina Renamed Into BMW Alpina, Operating As A Standalone BMW Group Brand

Back in March 2022, BMW Group announced its acquisition of Alpina, a company that was founded in 1965 by Burkard Bovensiepen, who is part of the Bovensiepen family of industrialists. Effective since January 1, 2026, Alpina is now a standalone brand under BMW Group and has officially been renamed BMW Alpina.

Alpina is known for tuning BMWs, though not in the same way that the vehicles would end up competing with the high-performance BMW M cars. It was high performance, but with equal measures of luxury and comfort. You’ll often spot an Alpina with its distinct large diameter multi-spoke wheels, the subtle bodykit, and the signature Alpina Blue or Alpina Green colors that these cars often wear.

Alpina’s logo features a carburetor and a camshaft, because this is the tuning brand’s core competency. Alpina gained recognition when the Weber dual carburetor that Burkard Bovensiepen developed in 1962 for the BMW 1500 was well-received by the media and BMW itself.

By 1988, Alpina started to have a unique relationship with BMW. Alpina fine-tuned a BMW’s engine in their own premises, and then assembled it with the vehicle’s body at BMW’s plants, and then brought it back to Alpina for adding Alpina-specific interior and exterior components. This is why Alpina is recognized by the German Federal Ministry of Transport as an automotive manufacturer, and thus is registered and branded as Alpina. Though Alpina has this unique status, Alpina vehicles are still sold and serviced in BMW dealerships. Though Alpina has never been officially sold in the Philippines, a small number were still imported by grey market dealers.

With Alpina now turning into BMW Alpina, BMW Group will carefully navigate the automotive world in how it handles the iconic BMW tuning brand. BMW says in a press release that, as they unveiled the new BMW Alpina wordmark, the design radiates the brand’s character–clarity, calm, and confidence. It is inspired by the brand’s asymmetrical wordmark from the 1970s.

BMW highlights that the key elements of BMW Alpina are its unique balance of high performance, ride comfort, and driving dynamics, complemented by “an exclusive portfolio of bespoke options and custom materials along with unmistakeable details”. This is likely a sign that BMW Alpina’s positioning will be somewhere between the core BMW brand and the ultra-luxury brand Rolls-Royce.

BMW Alpina presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the brand. For one, Alpina easily stood out since its cars seamlessly blended high performance with exclusive luxury, along with design and engineering choices that easily made an Alpina distinct. Its challenge, meanwhile, will be how well-defined BMW Alpina’s distinction will be from the core BMW brand, along with BMW’s M cars.