BMW Australia is pleading with the German automaker to produce a pickup to rival the Mercedes-Benz X-Class.
During a rather eye-opening interview with Car Advice, BMW Australia boss Marc Werner said that the automaker simply cannot ignore the demand for pickup trucks, particularly in markets like Australia and various others in South East Asia, Africa and South America.
“We have been very pushy regarding utes or pick-ups, and we believe that this is something the company should be looking into”, Werner commented. “We have raised that with headquarters and certainly investigations are happening as we speak, but it’s too early to speak about the results of that analysis, but if there was a ute we would certainly take it. We cannot close our eyes and neglect it, we cannot neglect market trends.”
This isn’t the first time BMW has commented on its interest in creating a luxurious pickup truck. However, these latest comments reveal a certain urgency within executives of the brand who believe such a vehicle needs to be produced sooner rather than later.
“If you look at the market, more than 150,000 Utes [were sold last year], out of 1.1 m cars overall and I think that that segment grew last year by 17 percent,” Werner said on the popularity of pickups, or utes, in Australia.
According to him, a pickup truck from BMW wouldn’t be at odds with the brand, noting the initial complaints regarding the original BMW X5 and its subsequent success.
