The look of Mini's upcoming all-electric model will be previewed in a concept at next month's Frankfurt motor show.
Mini has revealed its electric concept. Click here for the latest
The concept will offer a first glimpse of the model's design and its technical specifications before production starts in 2019.
Parent company BMW confirmed last month that Mini's all-electric model will be constructed at the brand’s plant in Cowley, Oxfordshire, and be based on the three-door variant.
The new model is to be built alongside the rest of the Mini range but it will use a new electric drivetrain that will be made in BMW’s e-mobility factories at Landshut and Dingolfing in Bavaria, where the BMW i3's drivetrain is also built. Range is predicted to be at least 250 miles.
The announcement that production will be in the UK quelled concerns that BMW could produce the electric Mini entirely in Germany, partly due to economic uncertainty created by the prospect of a hard Brexit.
Autocar confirmed the electric Mini’s development late last year following an exclusive interview with Mini boss Peter Schwarzenbauer. The 57-year-old German said the car’s 2019 arrival was significant because that’s when the “next step in battery technology” will make the model to be viable for market.
The car will join petrol and diesel versions of the three-door Mini and is part of wider plans to electrify more of Mini's range. The process began this year with the recently launched Countryman S E Cooper plug-in hybrid.
The strategy was first outlined in BMW Group’s Strategy Number One Next paper, which was tabled by chairman Harald Krüger last year and targets up to 500,000 electric car sales annually by 2025, representing 20% of total volume. It involves the launch of an electric X3 in 2020, the fully autonomous iNext model in 2021 and more models off the same electric platform in the following years.
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Is the battery range so
Is the battery range so sufficient to make it from Oxford to Dover? That a big improvement on the i3.
The latest economic data
The latest economic data tells us that exports from the UK are not rising as fast as imports, meaning that the trade deficit with the EU is going up not down. The pound may be taking a battering at the moment which should fuel exports but it's not. The reason for this is because we don't have enough capacity in our manaufacturing base to grow exports as exporters are used to working with a high pound. Investors are avoiding investment in capacity because of the uncertainty caused by Brexit (see latest data). The pound has much further to fall. This will drive inflation. Wages will continue to fall and the construction and consumer retail area of the economy will suffer. The experts are gradually being proven right. Brexit sucks!
Investment only based on production life cycle
Don't forget that any car industry investment is only based on the production life cyle of a particular vehicle. The Current generation of Mini has been in production for around 18 months??, so has maybe another maximum 4 years before it's replaced. So BMW could still shift all Mini production to mainland Europe after Brexit.
Has already been said thousands of jobs have already been lost to the EU even without Brexit. Look at Ford, stopped making vehicles in the UK in 2005, shifted evrything to Spain & Germany & even Turkey which isn't in the EU!!!
If Britain had of elected to saty in the EU, the pound would have soured in value, & car companies would have relocated to extra cheap Eastern Europe!!!!!
jagdavey
It was reported this morning that UK manufacturing (of all products) is at a 22-year high - thanks to the lower pound. There are advantages and disadvantages to higher/lower pound and higher/lower inflation. But as we need to be exporting stuff, then on balance the lower pound looks great.