It may seem like a total mismatch to think of BMW to be next in line to bring out the next great ute. But remember that while Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Mazda have been enjoying the market to themselves, other automakers, even the more premium ones, haven’t sat idle.
Volkswagen is now waist deep in their own pick-up efforts with the recent unveil of the second-generation Amarok. And even more recently, Renault has taken the wraps off their Navara-based Alaskan, setting the stage for Bimmer rival Mercedes-Benz to roll out their own pick-up based on a tie-up between them and Renault-Nissan.
BMW Australia’s own Marc Werner (Managing Director) alluded as much to the idea, calling it “an interesting proposition” and telling the audience of reporters that the automaker was indeed “watching it closely.” After all, the question wouldn’t have come up if not for the pressure for BMW to respond to a potentially lucrative market path that, as of now, is only being treaded by one of the big three German premium manufacturers.
It is possible that Werner was only humouring the audience present, but it wouldn’t be the first time time that BMW was linked to a ute. The most high-profile was a one-off that was created based off of an E92 M3 back in 2011. Although, that was released on April 1st, so we wouldn’t put much stock on that particular M division creation.
Werner added: “Here at BMW, we are constantly looking at market trends. We are always on the lookout for market opportunities and for further product derivatives that would be suitable for our customers.”
An argument can be made about pick-ups not having much traction in certain markets, but are popular in other counties – such as Australia. BMW isn’t shy about launching models that are only available in selected locations. Just last week, they launched the much-rumoured BMW 1 Series Sedan, which was unfortunately and as speculated, a China-only vehicle.
BMW does have quite a lot of experience with SUVs and crossovers now with the maturity of their X5, X3, and X1 models, and a more rugged and utilitarian machine could be well within their capability if given the impetus to develop such a thing.
Should it feel it needs help, as did Mercedes-Benz with their upcoming GLT pick-up based on the Nissan Navara, BMW could seek help from partner Toyota and their HiLux, swapping technology in much the same way they are currently doing in developing the next Toyota Supra and BMW Z5.
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