The larger BMW Group has laid out its forthcoming electrification strategy, announcing – to precisely nobody’s surprise – that the next MINI battery electric vehicle will be a variant of the standard 3 Door hatchback model.
Set to go on sale in 2019, the new model will feature an electric drivetrain built at BMW’s plants in Dingolfing and Landshut, before being shipped to MINI’s Oxford facility where it will be installed on the car. This will add to the existing lineup of petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid models.
Why is it not a surprise? Because in 2008 the company produced the MINI E, another electric three-door hatch, albeit only available for lease. That car used a 208 hp/220 Nm electric motor and a 35 kWh battery, resulting in a 0-100 km/h sprint time of 8.5 seconds, a 152 km/h top speed and a range of 240 km.
More recently, the company introduced the Cooper S E Countryman All4 plug-in hybrid, which takes a 136 hp/220 Nm 1.5 litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine and mates it to an 88 hp/165 Nm electric motor, a 7.6 kWh lithium-ion battery and a six-speed automatic transmission. Zero to 100 km/h takes just 6.9 seconds, and the car is also capable of up to 40 km of pure electric driving, at speeds of up to 125 km/h.
Munich has also announced that moving forward, all model series from all of its brands – BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce – will have the potential to be fitted with electric drive components, with a full-electric or plug-in hybrid drivetrain being offered in addition to the usual petrol or diesel engines. This comes hot on the heels of confirmation that Volvo will incorporate electrification on all of its cars by 2019.
The company has also confirmed that the iNEXT – the, um, next car in the BMW i lineup – will enter production in 2021. As such, it will become the final piece in Munich’s near-term electrification puzzle that also includes the i8 Roadster coming next year and the fully-electric X3 in 2020. The BMW Group expects electrified vehicles to account for between 15 and 25% of sales by 2025.
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