Alpina Badge Redesign: Compare the Identity Changes
How to read the Alpina badge redesign: the crankshaft-and-carburettor crest, the move to BMW ownership, criteria for comparing versions, and what is unconfirmed.
Contents
The short answer
"Alpina badge" usually means the crest of Alpina, the German maker of high-performance cars based on BMW models, founded by Burkard Bovensiepen. Questions about a redesign come from the brand's change of ownership. BMW Group announced in 2022 that it was acquiring the Alpina brand rights, and Alpina has now moved under BMW. Any change to the crest, wordmark or wider identity belongs to that transition.
The material behind this guide has no specimen of a redesigned badge. It also has no official announcement date, no designer credit and no stated rationale for a new version. So this guide can't confirm what changed. It covers the established crest, the documented ownership history, and a way to compare versions once you have reliable specimens. The final section lists the open questions.
Scope note: Alpina Watches and the Alpina sports-equipment brand are separate companies with their own marks. Nothing here applies to them.
What the established crest shows
Observable features: the long-standing emblem is a shield split into blue and red fields. It carries two mechanical motifs, a crankshaft and a twin-choke (double-barrel) carburettor. The ALPINA wordmark sits with the shield.
Documented meaning: the motifs refer to the company's origins in engine tuning. Alpina's own history traces the business to a dual-carburettor system developed for the BMW 1500 in the early 1960s. The motifs are therefore a literal reference to the company's founding product. Reading them as general symbols of "precision" or "craftsmanship" is editorial interpretation, not a documented brand statement.
How the identity reached this point
- Early 1960s: Bovensiepen develops a dual-carburettor system for the BMW 1500. The crest's carburettor motif points back to this.
- 1965: Alpina is established as a company focused on BMW-based performance engineering.
- 2022: BMW Group announces it will acquire the Alpina brand rights. Alpina continues building cars for BMW through a transition period ending in 2025.
- From 2026: Alpina operates as a BMW Group brand. Any redesigned badge or identity system dates from this ownership.
The available material does not establish who drew the original crest or when it was first used. It also doesn't say whether BMW has published a formal rationale for changes. Explanations such as "modernised to fit BMW's design language" are plausible, but treat them as speculation until an attributable BMW or Alpina source states them.
How to compare old and new versions
Visual comparisons are only fair when the specimens match. Ideally, use official brand files for both versions at the same size, on the same background, in full color and in single color. Comparing a photo of a metal car badge with a flat screen logo will exaggerate the differences, because lighting, enamel and relief change how the crest looks.
| Criterion | What to check | Why it matters |
| Shield geometry | Outline proportions, corner treatment, symmetry, border weight | The silhouette carries recognition at small sizes |
| Motif detail | How the crankshaft and carburettor are drawn: number of parts, stroke weight, shading versus flat shapes | Fine detail fills in when printed small, embroidered or etched |
| Color fields | Blue and red values, the division line, gradients or bevels versus flat color | Flat color reproduces more consistently across print, screen and enamel |
| Wordmark | Letterforms, weight, letter spacing, position relative to the shield | Shows whether the wordmark can stand alone and how legible it is |
| Lockup and clear space | Spacing between crest and wordmark, and the protected margin around them | Affects how the mark sits beside BMW branding and other logos |
| Single-color and reversed versions | Whether the crest still reads without red and blue | Needed for stamping, engraving and one-color print |
| Physical versus digital | Differences between the car emblem and the flat logo file | A metal badge and a screen asset may be deliberately different objects |
The main tradeoff in any badge redesign is simplification against heritage detail. Fewer, bolder shapes scale better and reproduce more reliably. But the crankshaft and carburettor carry Alpina's origin story, so simplifying them past the point of recognition weakens what makes the crest specific. No legibility or reproduction tests were supplied, so judgments about how either version performs at small sizes are untested.
Which version to use depends on the job:
Small digital or one-color uses: a simplified mark is the safer choice, if one has been officially issued.
Historical or editorial work about a specific car or era: reproduce the crest as it appeared at that time.
Working with vector files
A file named as SVG, EPS or AI is not necessarily true vector artwork. Open the file and check what it contains before relying on it.
- Paths versus raster: check whether the shapes are editable paths or an embedded bitmap inside a vector wrapper.
- Text handling: check whether the wordmark is outlined artwork or live text that depends on an installed font.
- Path quality: look for excessive anchor points, stray fragments or auto-traced edges, all signs of conversion from a raster image.
- Color setup: check whether colors are defined as spot, CMYK or RGB values, and whether they match official specifications.
- Structure: look for clipping masks, hidden layers or stacked duplicate shapes that complicate editing.
A logo file being easy to find does not mean you are allowed to reuse it. The Alpina name and crest are trademarks now controlled by BMW Group. Editorial reference, merchandise and commercial branding are treated differently, so confirm permitted use with the rights holder before reproducing either version.
What remains unverified
- Whether BMW has officially published a redesigned Alpina badge, and on what date.
- Who designed any new version, whether an in-house BMW team or an agency.
- Any official statement of the reasons for the changes.
- Official color values, clear-space rules and approved lockups for either version.
- Authenticated vector masters of the original and any new crest.
Next step: get official brand material from BMW Group or Alpina, ideally a press release and downloadable brand assets. Then compare the versions using the criteria above, under matched viewing conditions.