A chopped BMW X7 has been sketched up by computer graphic designer Rain Prisk signalling renewed interested in another German-brand hauler.
Despite BMW stating clearly the company is not interested in competing with Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen for pick-up sales, this is the second third-party concept drawing to surface in recent months.
The concept was designed off the artist’s visual impressions of a BMW ute prototype built by a team of apprentices, which Prisk says he was “not a big fan of that design”.
“I saw the one-off X7 pickup that BMW did,” he says on the Facebook post.
“I quickly tried to make one myself,” he adds.
The original Beemer ute design was inked by twelve company design apprentices with a more curved, luxurious set of lines and what appears to be a wood or faux wood tray liner, befitting the prestige marque.
However, Prisk’s new design aims for a more high-performance oriented, potentially M-badged Ford Ranger Raptor rival, sporting knobbly 35-inch alloy wheels, a rear sports visor, heavy duty suspension and thick black running boards/rock rails.
Last year BMW board member and development chief Klaus Fröhlich said a load-lugging BMW X-something was irrelevant for the brand.
“Every business case we have calculated, it was just not relevant,” he said.
“The premium size of the market is extremely small,” Fröhlich adds.
CarsGuide has previously reported BMW Australia chief executive Mark Werner saying the local distributor has been “very pushy regarding utes and pick-ups”.
Wener says a BMW ute is “something that the company should be looking to” and cites “investigations” going on inside the company globally as of late 2018.
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