During the double world premiere of the next-generation Cooper 3-Door and Countryman, MINI also made some major disclosures pretraining to its electric future. Head of MINI, Stefanie Wurst, took the stage in Munich to announce one in two cars the Oxford-based marque is going to sell in 2025 won’t have a combustion engine. Yes, the British brand part of the BMW Group projects deliveries of pure EVs will match those of ICEs in just two years’ time. In 2023, electric cars account for only 15% of the firm’s total sales.
She also reinforced MINI’s long-term objective to discontinue combustion-engined vehicles by the end of the decade by offering an EV-only lineup starting in 2030. To achieve this lofty goal, the new electric Cooper three-door hatchback is being joined by a first-ever Countryman EV, complete with all-wheel drive. During the dedicated event, MINI also reiterated plans to introduce the Aceman in April 2024 as an electric-only crossover positioned below the Countryman.
We’ve already seen official images of the new Countryman John Cooper Works with its quad exhaust system, and MINI is also confirming the desirable JCW badge will live on in the impending electric era. The company refrained from going into details about which cars are going to receive the zero-emission sporty treatment but the 3-Door hatch has already been spied testing as an EV.
Regardless of powertrain, the new wave of MINIs ushers in a simplified, smoother design language with a minimalist interior to echo what BMW will be doing with the Neue Klasse models arriving in 2025.
As far as Rolls-Royce is concerned, much like MINI, it too wants to go full electric around 2030. In regard to ALPINA, it’ll be interesting to see which direction it will take under the BMW Group corporate umbrella. We’ve been told it’s going to be pushed upmarket to bridge the gap between the most expensive BMWs and the cheapest Rolls-Royce, provided there’s such a thing as an affordable RR. Needless to say, an electric ALPINA is a matter of when rather than if.
Source: MINI
