We remember conversations with Erich Bitter, the passionate inventor who enchanted celebrities up to Kitzbühl with refined Opels. We think of Karmann in Osnabrück, where the braggarts on duty made smart convertibles from Volkswagen and Mercedes. They never ran out of ideas, but eventually they ran out of money. Bitter probably still looks good on Opel, but nothing is known of thrilling creations, Karmann had to file for bankruptcy and was absorbed by Volkswagen. Today, anyone looking for something special from an independent source takes their VW or Audi to Abt in Kempten. Or buy an Alpina from the Bovensiepen family in Buchloe. In November 2017, we wrote about their B5 based on the BMW 5 Series that it was one of the best cars that have ever been a guest in this editorial office.
We still dream of the car today, but now we and the fan base have received news that turns into a nightmare. Alpina will be sold with effect from the end of 2025. At least the buyer is called BMW, and the two companies have been partners for 57 years. The central sentence in the justification: “Due to the politically decreed transformation towards electromobility and the increasing regulation, especially in emissions legislation, software protection and the specifications for driver assistance and monitoring systems, the requirements and risks are increasing significantly.”
Apparently too much for small series manufacturers. But don’t believe that corporations easily put up with things like that just because they’re bigger than a pearl like Alpina. The task of the Bovensiepen family is more than a side note, it must be a warning sign to the legislators in Berlin and Brussels.
#BMW #buys #Alpina #crushed