Since Aussies love their pickup trucks, at almost every press event, someone from the Land Down Under poses the question: Will BMW build a pickup truck, like Mercedes did with their X-Class? Klaus Frolich, board member for BMW Development, has been very direct in his statements in regards to the BMW pickup truck, so it comes as no surprise that he unequivocally denied any plans for such car.
Frolich knows exactly how popular dual cabs are Down Under too, he pays attention to what’s going on in our market.
“Look, I’m the bad guy,” he says in reference to why the idea never got off the ground internally, and him being the one to knock it on the head.
“If you look at the pickup truck market, there is a focus on medium price points, in Germany anyway. At the higher end, the sales are very low.”
“To do a proper pickup, you need a ladder frame platform, and a monocoque platform is compromised,” Frolich said.
“I have only two architectures and we do not get a proper pick-up truck out of it. I also think that it’s never profitable, the premium end of the market is very small in trucks.”
On top of that, a BMW pickup would have to drive like the “Ultimate Driving Machine”, and Frolich believes BMW would have to compromise in order to deliver a dual cab. Furthermore, the BMW R&D Chief believes the market potential is just not big enough at the moment.
“I have no market potential for a monocoque pickup,” he said. “If worldwide Mercedes-Benz sells less than 4000 X-Class a month, there is no market there. I see no evidence that we can ever do a good proposition with a pickup truck.”
So for now, we would just have to settle for those April 1 jokes and enjoy the one-offs.
[Source: CarAdvice]
