At 11:00 CEST on September 1st, MINI will premiere the all-new Cooper EV and Countryman EV at IAA Munich. Later on, the hatchback and crossover will be presented with internal combustion options.
MINI chose IAA Munich over a British motor show because it's owned by Munich's favorite son. Both vehicles will arrive in showrooms for the 2025 model year. The Countryman EV is closely related to the BMW iX1, which features a UKL2-derived platform referred to as FAAR (Frontantriebsarchitektur) platform.
The Cooper EV is different under the skin, for its platform was developed by Chinese manufacturer Great Wall in partnership with BMW. The Cooper EV will be assembled in China instead of the United Kingdom.
Spotlight Automotive is what Great Wall and BMW call their joint venture. Officialized in 2019, the joint venture has also been tasked with assembling the Aceman. Slotted between the Cooper EV and Countryman EV, the Aceman is exclusively electric. No ICEs here, no sir!
MINI's final internal combustion-engined vehicle will be introduced in 2025. Five years later, the British marque will pull the plug on internal combustion-engined vehicles. MINI has also decided to abandon plug-in hybrid powertrains, which means the next-generation Countryman won't be available as a plug-in hybrid.
Longer in wheelbase and wider in track compared to the current generation, the 2025 model year MINI Cooper EV has been confirmed with two battery choices. The base specification rocks 40 kWh for approximately 186 miles (300 kilometers) of driving range. Its front electric motor is rated at 181 hp.
Slotted above the Cooper E, the Cooper SE packs 54 kWh and 215 horsepower on full chatter. Driving range is estimated at 248 miles (400 kilometers), which is pretty good for a car with such a limited amount of space between the front and rear axles. The JCW is believed to belt out in the ballpark of 250 horsepower. By comparison, the BMW-engined JCW available to configure for 2024 offers 228 ponies at full chatter.
Moving on to the Countryman EV, look forward to a front-mounted electric motor, 54 kWh, and 188 horsepower from the base specification. The SE ALL4 has two motors and 308 horsepower to play with, along with a 64-kWh battery and up to 273 miles (440 kilometers) of driving range under the WLTP. Similar to the aforementioned Cooper JCW, nobody except MINI knows the actual output of the Countryman JCW.
Both the Cooper EV and Countryman EV feature simplified interiors with a circular display for the infotainment system. Designed for MINI Operating System 9, said infotainment system features OLED technology, a voice assistant called Spike, over-the-air updates, and 5G connectivity. MINI Operating System 9 is based on AOSP, which stands for Android Open Source Project.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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