Care for a BMW pickup?

BMW has long been toying with the idea of creating a pickup — not officially, at least. Some people at the factory, suggested to have worked after hours, had in at least two instances during the past decades built pickups. Both pickups were based on the 3-Series. The first on an E30, the other on an E90.

This year the carmaker displayed at the just-concluded BMW Motorrad Days what it called “a true one-off — the BMW X7 Pick-up.”

Like in the previous trucks BMW is again saying it officially did not have anything to do with the project; this time around it said the conversion was performed by vocational trainees. The company admitted as much, however, that the X7 pickup job was done “in cooperation with the Concept Vehicle Construction and Model Technology divisions at the BMW Munich plant.”

The pickup is fitted with the 340hp engine of the X7 xDrive40i. It can seat five in luxury. It has a handcrafted loading area boasting polished wood. It has height-adjustable, two-level air suspension, as well as numerous other items taken from the X7. As can be seen in photos, a BMW F850 GS fits in the bed.

The use of CFRP on roof components, rear doors and the rear lid reduced by 200 kilograms the weight of the pickup compared to the X7.

BMW said it took 12 trainees 10 months to complete the conversion.

It did not call the X7 Pick-up a “concept,” though.