For decades now, Alpina, a small tuning house nestled in the countryside just west of BMW’s home in Munich, has been taking the German firm’s cars, adding a dash of extra luxury, performance and pinstriping, and turning them into some of the coolest ‘if you know, you know’ performance cars around.
We’ve known change has been coming for a while, though. In 2022, it was announced that BMW was in the process of buying out the independent company, and that at the end of 2025, it would be fully subsumed into the Munich mothership.
F10 Alpina B5
Sure enough, yesterday, 1 January 2026, all the rights to the Alpina brand were fully transferred to BMW, and the company has briefly outlined its plans for the storied tuner. In the short run, those plans focus on ‘brand activation’, which begins with a new logo. The wordmark for what’s now officially known as BMW Alpina is a modernised version of the one the tuner introduced in the 1970s, and that could still be found on its crest until the very end.
In the longer term, it looks as though the brand will become a more luxury-oriented division of BMW, offering posher versions of its regular cars with plenty of personalisation options, as well as maintaining some performance focus. In other words, it won’t be too far removed from what Alpina was doing as an independent company.
Alpina XD3
BMW says that “Key elements of the BMW Alpina brand are its unique balance of maximum performance and superior ride comfort, combined with hallmark driving characteristics… complemented by an exclusive portfolio of bespoke options and custom materials along with unmistakable details.”
We’ve likely still got a while to wait before we see exactly what form this takes, but while it sounds like Beemer plans to keep the Alpina name true to its roots, we can’t help but feel a little sad that its run as an independent has come to an end. Time to pour one out for those many-spoked, gold-striped icons of coolness.
Mike joined Car Throttle as a Staff Writer at the start of 2024, a role that sees him driving the news desk, as well as reviewing cars and (often unsuccessfully) pitching features on obscure Italian hatchbacks.
