Not happening: BMW ‘thumbs-down’ bakkie hopes

Despite having toyed with the idea for almost four decades, BMW has officially denounced the idea of producing an upscale bakkie for the global or North American markets.

Although it’s most recent creation, a one-off based on the pre-facelift X7 in 2019 drew significant attention, Munich’s Head of Design, Adrian van Hooydonk, indicated that such a vehicle doesn’t fit within the company portfolio in spite of admitting that interest prevails as to how sophisticated bakkies have become over the last few years.

No platform

At the presentation of the mentioned model, which came eight years after the debut of an open-deck E92 M3 BMW later admitted had been nothing but an April’s Fools joke as it premiered on 1 April, then Head of Development, Klaus Fröhlich, said the automaker’s lack of a body-on-frame platform effectively nullifies its entry into the bakkie segment.

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“If you look at the pick-up market… if you look at the segment of the pick-up trucks, it’s very much utilities, so median price points are very low.

“To do a proper pick-up you need a ladder frame architecture. I have only two architectures and I do not get a proper pick-up truck out of it,” Australia’s carsales.com.au quoted him as saying.

Joint venture? Nope

He also stated that plans on entering into a joint venture similar to the ill-fated Mercedes-Benz based on the Nissan Navara and more recently, Volkswagen using the foundation of the Ford Ranger for the new Amarok, wasn’t an option either, saying “we will never do something badge engineering”.

In the latest development surrounding the bakkie, and in accordance with rumours last year of Audi being allegedly interested, Van Hooydonk told the BMWBlog that a bakkie “is not an obvious fit for the BMW brand”.

“We don’t have to go after every trend that is happening. If we go into a segment then we want to go in there for the long haul. Also, we don’t have to go after every trend that is happening,” he said.

“What’s interesting is that the pickup truck is becoming more sophisticated. The electric drivetrains are coming in. They have also become more refined. Those are all interesting developments. But not necessary for us to go and jump in that thing right away”.

Lineage of BMW bakkies

Besides the E92 M3, the first indication of BMW being inserted came in 1986 when it showcased a prototype bakkie spun-off of the 3 Series Cabriolet that eventually became known as the M3 Pickup Concept as it swapped-out the 141 kW 2.0-litre engine from the Italian market 320si for the original E30 M3’s 147 kW 2.3-litre S14 unit.

As with its eventual successor, the model remained a working one-off that never entered production.

Additional information from topgear.com.