First Sight Q&A: Max Missoni on the new Vision BMW Alpina

Although unveiled publicly at the beautifully elegant Villa d’Este – on the shores of Lake Como in Italy on the evening of 15th May 2026 – Car Design News was luckily enough to get a sneak preview of the vehicle at Alpina’s wider brand relaunch earlier in May, on the edge of another scenic body of water, Lake Chiemsee to the south-east of Munich and north-west of Salzburg.

At the ‘no-phones, no pictures’ presentation CDN chatted informally with three key members of the design team, Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design, Max Missoni, BMW Design Midsize & Luxury cars and BMW Alpina, and Alex Innes Alpina design lead.

Through the preview event this design supergroup explained how the independent tuning business set up in 1965 by Burkard Bovensiepen only chose BMWs to work with and grew the business in the 1970s and 80s to gradually become an under-the-radar secret badge for connoisseurs, known for its enticing mix of rich comfort, great style and high speed.

Always delivered in a subtle way – an attribute which seemed to chime well with the personal tastes of the designer trio presenting – the team highlighted how they intended to keep that spirit alive through a deep respect for Alpina’s past, including exterior details like bodyside pinstripes inspired by 70s Fischer ski graphics, or eye-popping 20-spoke alloy wheels.

Both of those references made the cut on the Vision BMW Alpina – in subtle ways of course. The circa 5.2-metre-long, 2.0m wide and 1.4m high concept with 22” and 23” (20-spoke) wheels is based on a long wheelbase BMW 8 Series coupé with a V8 engine but has significant standalone bodywork and a fully realised cabin with different finishes.

The key to the new car starts with the front. Up close and personal, its gently forward-leaning ‘shark-nose’ features a pleasingly three-dimensional interpretation of the famous BMW kidney grille which via carefully controlled back lighting creates a floating effect, and with it a greater sense of depth. 

Along each side a key line rises gently and diagonally from low-down at the front to finish under the staggered rear lighting at the car’s curvaceous rear. Look above that line and there is the Alpina’s thick-to-thin signature graphic running under the clear coat in a slightly contrasting colour to the main body. Again, it’s super subtle.

Inside, the two-tone mid-grey and cream cabin is all about understated luxury – and looks close to production-ready. From Rolls-Royce spec semi-aniline leather, precise crystal controls, unusually coloured and designed thick/thin ‘bridge-stitching’ and yachting industry-inspired illuminated and magnetised rear centre console cupholders with bespoke glasses, the effect is consistently curated and never shouts too loud.

The first production BMW Alpina models launching in 2027 will be based on the 7 Series and X7 and although initial production volumes are not expected to be very high, they are not due to be capped as limited editions either. Powertrains will be “technology-open” so expect electrified versions as well. Pricing will start above the current BMW 7 Series but below Rolls-Royce.

To find out more, we sat down for a more in-depth talk with BMW Alpina’s design director, Max Missoni, to chat about back stories, inspirations and very luxurious but non-showy options…

Car Design News: How long have you been preparing this Vision concept and how will it influence forthcoming BMW Alpina production cars?

Maximilian Missoni: This is my first BMW. When I joined [in September 2024], I found on my desk the big fat Alpina history book. I understood. Let’s take this very seriously. But it was fun to do with the team and go into all the stories and translate them into product design. It sounds trivial, but it takes some craft to translate stories into shape and products. Many of the concept’s ideas and features you can expect in the production cars going forward, because that’s the whole point: to underline the potential and understated flamboyance of Alpina.

CDN: Who do you think will want to buy one of your new Alpina cars?

MM: In terms of customer, it is somebody who likes comfort and luxury, but who wants to drive a very performance-oriented, very agile car, somebody who’s into speed. In Germany, that means 300km/h and beyond (186mph+), so that’s quite a statement. And then it’s somebody who doesn’t need to show off. I think that’s one of the important aspects, this understated confidence. The performance is just there when you need it.

CDN: You mentioned hosting dinners with existing Alpina customers. What was their most common concern about maybe getting it wrong in their view?

MM: I didn’t hear any concerns. I think they were generally excited about the future and also grateful that we looked so deep into the history of their brand because they feel like it’s their brand. I’ve had the privilege to work with [other] brands in different ways including completely new ones where we started from a clean sheet of paper. But to me, this is probably the hardest to innovate and go a step into the future without losing contact with the heritage because many of these things have been around and have evolved. 

Many of the design cues have changed over time until people forgot where they came from. It’s easy to just extrapolate them, take the next step. The harder part is to look, and say, ‘what’s the story behind it?’ Basically we restarted the idea, or the essence of the idea. That was a nice journey.

CDN: How much scope is there to significantly change the body work on Alpina production models from the BMW donor cars?

MM: In the future, we’ll have to see how far we can stretch the spectrum. This concept car gives an idea, this is our design vision, but it shows that you could apply the philosophy and idea of Alpina to pretty much a whole vehicle if you wanted to. Alpina traditionally worked mostly with the front and the rear of the vehicle in terms of aerodynamics, and all the things that are technically needed to reach top speeds, and then the interior. The interior is a big playground for Alpina.

CDN: You still have your ‘other job’ designing large (regular) BMWs. Is there going to be a kind of subtlety ‘trickle down’ effect from Alpina in terms of design mindset? 

MM: I mean, you’ve known me for a while now, and I like finesse, sophistication in design. This car has a BMW emblem on the front, so it’s not a standalone Alpina ‘vision’. It’s a BMW Alpina vision. As I alluded to yesterday this car is quite close in terms of its architecture in the front to what we’re now showing in the luxury class vehicles. But yes, this is also a vision going forward for the wider BMW scope, because BMWs and Alpinas will always be like this [closely related].

CDN: You flagged some key words and details in your presentation last night and I would suggest that ‘authenticity’ should be reinforced as one of Alpina’s. I think there’s been a gap that needs to be filled with authentic materials, inside and out: things being what they are, not pretending to be something they’re not.

MM: Absolutely, anywhere in the luxury segment I would say authenticity is always a good idea.