BMW's X7 Pickup Truck Concept is the Motorcycle Carrier Nobody Asked For

BMW announced at least one new concept will appear at this weekend’s 2019 BMW Motorrad Days… but it’s not a motorcycle. No, instead, it will be a one-off pickup truck. What does it have to do with motorcycles? Nothing much, really, except BMW present it as a motorcycle carrier for an F850GS, saying that together they can “reach even the remotest corners of the world.”

The one-off concept (BMW says there are plans beyond that) was designed by BMW’s vocational trainees working with the company’s Concept Vehicle Construction and Model Technology divisions in Munich. The five-seater truck is based on the BMW X7, the company’s largest SUV.

The trainees from the vehicle mechanics, vehicle mechatronics and technical model construction teams were given pretty much free reign on conception and implementation for the project. It took 10 months in all to produce the final street legal showroom-ready concept.

“I am pleased about the synergies between BMW Group Vocational Training, Concept Vehicle Construction and Model Technology, allowing these young talents to prove their abilities with such an extraordinary project,” says Milagros Caiña-Andree, Member of the Board for Human Resources of BMW.

The designers removed the SUV’s rear to make room for the truck bed. They used carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) for the roof, rear doors and rear lid, resulting in a 441-pound weight saving compared to a standard X7, despite an extra 3.9 inches in overall length.

The truck bed is made up of a handcrafted teak wood cladding while various trim strips and the handgrips integrated into the rear of the cabin were produced from a Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D pressure printing process.

Unfortunately, because they opted to keep the three second row seats, the 55.1-inch truck bed isn’t actually long enough to hold the GS, as they had to keep the rear door open to increase the length to 78.7 inches. But at least they integrated loops into the truck bed to attach tie-down straps.

I asked one of the editors of AutoGuide what he thought about the concept, and he said: “The Germans just don’t understand pickup trucks.” Still, as a one-off project developed by vocational trainees, we can’t be too mad about it.