The British success story of Mini production is extending into the electric age, with the company confirming healthy build numbers of its first battery-powered model.
Eleven thousand examples of the Mini Electric have been built since production commenced at the facility in Cowley, Oxfordshire in November last year. Three thousand orders for the car have been placed in the UK alone since its launch.
This means the UK is the second-largest market for electrified Minis, taking 19% of all Electric and Countryman S E plug-in hybrid sales. The company predicts that a third of three-door Minis produced will be electric by 2021.
Although the production figure is some way off the number of Nissan Leafs usually built annually in Sunderland (21,000 in 2018), it’s a strong figure for a new product launched prior to a global pandemic that has caused factory closures and a fall in demand for new cars.
The positive announcement comes at the same time as the Society of Manufacturer and Motor Traders announces a dramatic slump in UK car production for the first half of 2020. Production fell 42.8% year-on-year to the lowest figure since post-war rationing was lifted in 1954.
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Silly me
I always thought car makers celebrated the more usual milestone 10599 cars made in 11 months. Then again I suppose Autocar missed the 10000th Mini E being made.....
Milestone
Ah yes, that ages-old milestone, 11.000 in nine months. Who among us hasn't celebrated it, in one way or another? Very few, I dare say, very few indeed.
tuga wrote:
Hehehehe!
Nice.