Article Summary
- BMW ALPINA will unveil the Vision BMW ALPINA at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on May 15, its first reveal as a BMW Group sub-brand.
- The teaser silhouette suggests a bespoke gran coupe body style with independent front and rear lighting design.
- The project is believed to involve designer Max Missoni and former Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designer Alex Innes.
The first vehicle from BMW ALPINA since the brand became a full BMW Group sub-brand will debut on May 15 at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este — and if what we’ve heard is accurate, it’s worth paying attention to.
We’ve known about this one for a few months and held off because the early word was good enough to deserve more than a rushed post. BMW ALPINA sent its customer list a teaser email this morning announcing the “Vision BMW ALPINA,” with a reveal set for the shores of Lake Como. The silhouette in the teaser image points to a bespoke gran coupe body style, distinct lighting signatures front and rear, and proportions that sit somewhere in 8 Series territory — without being based on anything currently in production.
The teaser image BMW ALPINA sent out is deliberately low-resolution — you’re not going to find hidden details by squinting — but the silhouette is enough to work with. The roofline follows a long, sweeping fastback arc that reads something like a gran coupe, not a sedan, not an SUV. And the front and rear light signatures, even blurred as they are, appear to be entirely their own — not lifted from any existing BMW family. Whether that translates to a production car is a different question, and “Vision” in a model name rarely guarantees anything.
We’ve heard from people who’ve seen the actual car that it is, without exaggeration, one of the more beautiful things BMW has shown in years. That’s a genuinely high bar to clear at Villa d’Este, where the competition is literally a century of automotive history lined up around a lake.
The People Behind It
This is, as far as we can tell, the first project from Max Missoni that the public gets to see. Missoni joined BMW’s design organization as head of Middle, Luxury Class and ALPINA design, and the Vision BMW ALPINA is where that work becomes visible for the first time. What his specific direction looks like in three dimensions, we’ll find out Friday.
What makes this more interesting is Alex Innes. If you followed his career at Rolls-Royce, you know his name from the Coachbuild division — he was the designer behind the Boat Tail and the La Rose Noire Droptail, cars that exist outside normal automotive logic entirely. Innes joined the ALPINA team in 2024, and while BMW hasn’t confirmed his specific role in this project, it’s not a difficult conclusion to draw. If someone with his background is on staff and the car reportedly looks the way it reportedly looks, the math isn’t complicated.
The email BMW ALPINA sent describes the Vision as “a composition of refinement, performance, and comfort.” That’s three words that have meant something specific in Buchloer for decades: hand-stitched leather, engine tune numbers that end in round figures, and a ride quality that somehow coexisted with those numbers on the Autobahn. Whether that formula survives intact under Munich’s ownership is the real question ALPINA customers have been asking since the acquisition was announced.
The fact that BMW chose Villa d’Este — not a motor show, not a press event — as the stage for this reveal is itself a signal. It’s the right room for a car that wants to be taken seriously on aesthetic grounds before technical ones. We’ll have full coverage on May 15. If what we’ve heard holds, it’ll be worth clearing the morning for.