Take a minute to analyze this low-res rendering of a pickup with kidney grilles and a white-and-blue roundel on the hood. Now try to imagine the BMW iX with a tailgate and a bed instead of a liftgate and a cargo compartment. There’s no way of sugarcoating it; a truck would be a pretty poor addition to the Bavarian automaker’s lineup.
Some of you may recall the M3 Pickup unveiled on April Fools’ Day in 2011, but the Munich-based company has a longer history with utes than some among us may imagine. The E30 M3 Pickup the first attempt at making a truck, and at one point, the German manufacturer appeared to be serious about this body style.
The Motorrad Days event from 2019 is when the X7 Pickup was revealed with a unibody construction and a motorcycle in the cargo area, a one-off truck designed by a team of trainees. But two years earlier, BMW took aim at Mercedes-Benz for the X-Class while confirming that a luxury pickup sounds like a pretty good idea.
Back in 2017, senior vice president Hendrik von Kunheim used to rock a phone cover with a rendering of a BMW workhorse “just to remember what are my priorities when I am talking to the board.” He told Motoring that “it’s crystal clear. If the market goes to an SUV share of 60-70 percent, then there is also space for a ute.”
The problem is, Bayerische Motoren Werke has other priorities for the coming decade, priorities that will take a lot of R&D money to implement. A third of BMW sales are expected to comprise of electrified vehicles by 2025, and by 2030, the luxury automaker expects that figure to balloon to 50 percent based on the current trends.
Can you find a spot in the 2030 lineup for a pickup truck? Does BMW afford to take a losing bet with an oddity rather than a product with mass-market appeal like the 3 Series and X5? Haven’t the Bavarians learned their lesson from the commercial flop known as the Mercedes X-Class? Indeed, you know the answers to those questions.
The Motorrad Days event from 2019 is when the X7 Pickup was revealed with a unibody construction and a motorcycle in the cargo area, a one-off truck designed by a team of trainees. But two years earlier, BMW took aim at Mercedes-Benz for the X-Class while confirming that a luxury pickup sounds like a pretty good idea.
Back in 2017, senior vice president Hendrik von Kunheim used to rock a phone cover with a rendering of a BMW workhorse “just to remember what are my priorities when I am talking to the board.” He told Motoring that “it’s crystal clear. If the market goes to an SUV share of 60-70 percent, then there is also space for a ute.”
The problem is, Bayerische Motoren Werke has other priorities for the coming decade, priorities that will take a lot of R&D money to implement. A third of BMW sales are expected to comprise of electrified vehicles by 2025, and by 2030, the luxury automaker expects that figure to balloon to 50 percent based on the current trends.
Can you find a spot in the 2030 lineup for a pickup truck? Does BMW afford to take a losing bet with an oddity rather than a product with mass-market appeal like the 3 Series and X5? Haven’t the Bavarians learned their lesson from the commercial flop known as the Mercedes X-Class? Indeed, you know the answers to those questions.