Speaking to Australia’s motoring.com at the Paris Motor Show, BMW Head of Development, Klaus Frohlich, said that the introduction of an open-deck BMW would not bring about the return of the likely investment, as the majority of its studies conducted simply makes no financial sense.

“Every business case we did so far … it was by far not relevant. The premium side of that market is extremely small … there’s only a few regions of the world. If you look at the pick-up market … if you look at the segment of the pick-up trucks, it’s very much utilities, so median price points are very, very low," Frohlich said.

In a thinly veiled swipe at chief rival Mercedes-Benz, whose X-class was described as “appalling” and a “disappointment” by the company’s Senior Vice President for Asia and South Africa,Hendrik von Kunheim, at the Geneva Motor Show last year, Frohlich rebuked speculation that the automaker would enter into a badge engineering exercise by re-developing a version of the Toyota Hilux, despite both companies having worked together on producing the Z4 and incoming Supra.

“We will never do something [like] badge engineering. To do a proper pick-up, you need a ladder frame architecture. I have only two architectures and I do not get a proper pick-up truck out of it,” he said.