(Motorsport-Total.com/Motor1) – It can certainly be said that the Vision BMW Alpina attracted all the attention at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2026 over the weekend. The imposing luxury coupe is designed as a four-seater grand tourer – and yet it will not be the first model of the Alpina era under BMW.
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In fact, it may never go into production. For now, the elegant GT is listed as a “one-of-one design study.” At the same time, the newly established sub-brand is currently putting the finishing touches on a large sedan.
BMW has confirmed that the first Alpina model since the takeover of the brand name is based on the 7 Series. It is expected to appear sometime next year with a V8 engine and serve as the spiritual successor to the B7, which was last offered in 2022. It would be logical for the stately sedan to be closely based on the recently facelifted Munich flagship. At the same time, it is said to be “unmistakably BMW Alpina.”
The V8 is coming
What this statement specifically means is obvious: Some design elements of the coupe concept could flow into the production sedan. In fact, the Vision BMW Alpina largely adopts the cockpit layout of the recently revised 7 Series – including the passenger display. The massive presence of the show car, with a length of 5,200 millimeters, also suggests that it could easily pass as a 7 Series coupe or something along those lines.
The revised 7 Series currently forgoes a V8 because the 760i has not yet received a direct successor. However, BMW has already confirmed that an M Performance model with an eight-cylinder will arrive in 2027. It would therefore make sense if the Alpina variant is closely related to what insiders call the M760.
Photo gallery: BMW Alpina model will be a large V8 sedan
Alpina models from the time before the BMW takeover relied on independently tuned engines – and the upcoming model is likely to continue this tradition. The vision concept spoke of a “V8 drive tuned to the characteristic notes of the Alpina exhaust system: rich and deep at low speeds, sonorous at high revs.” In terms of power, a significant increase over the 544 hp of the turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 in the earlier 760i is expected.
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No M, but Alpina
However, the new Alpina 7 Series is not expected to focus on uncompromising performance – that role is likely to fall to the M760. Instead, a particularly sovereign, luxurious driving comfort is to be the focus, hinted at by the Comfort+ setting of the concept.
Details are still scarce, but this mode seems to be intended as an exclusive offer for customers who want to go beyond a normal BMW: “a tuning beyond the standard BMW comfort calibration that delivers a smoother, more cultivated character.” This fits with Alpina’s earlier orientation: fast and strong, but not an M, rather with high travel comfort.
The biggest open question is how the future Alpina 7 Series will distinguish itself from the regular BMW. Earlier models stood for understated elegance. However, the huge kidney grilles of the vision concept make the large coupe significantly less discreet than an earlier B7. Some elements of the one-off are likely to flow into the sedan – because it would be implausible to show a concept so far removed from an upcoming production model.
A new niche
BMW seems to have found a niche that, to be honest, we didn’t even know existed. Alpina is likely to position itself somewhere between a fully equipped 7 Series and an entry-level Rolls-Royce Ghost. Regardless of exactly where it lands in the hierarchy of the BMW Group: It is pleasing that the first Alpina of the new era will be a sedan – and not an SUV.
An SUV is unlikely to be long in coming. Since a second-generation X7 is due in 2027, it would be no surprise if BMW Alpina brings a successor to the XB7 before the end of the decade. Hopefully, a coupe in the size and luxury class of the vision study will also make it into production at some point – filling the gap left by the discontinuation of the 8 Series coupe.
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