MINI will be adding to its product line-up with a next-generation model of the Cooper 5 Door hatchback as part of its range of core models, Autocar has reported.
Confirmation of the MINI 5 Door’s return by head of MINI, Stephanie Wurst follows shortly after the debuts of the fifth-generation MINI three-door hatchback – now known as the Cooper – and the third-generation MINI Countryman, where both models have been introduced as electric models though petrol-powered versions will also join the range.
“We have so much to do with the roll-out of the family we’ve just announced. The Aceman is still missing, the John Cooper Works variations are all to come, we only speak about the three-door but we actually have a five-door coming, and we have a convertible as well,” Wurst told Autocar.
Separate platforms will be employed for the EV and combustion-engined versions of the MINI Cooper 5 Door, as the case is with the new Cooper, according to Autocar. This approach will apply to the high-performance John Cooper Works versions as well, and the JCW version of the three-door version is set to debut in 2025, the magazine reported.
The MINI model line will remain “simple”, Wurst continued, saying that plans for a production version of the Urbanaut MPV are “in the freezer”. “It’s now not the time to talk about new models, but it will come with time. It’s a question of architecture as well, and we have to work in a cost-effective way,” she said.
“A MINI model has to have a clear use case, a clear size and the variants have to be limited. If we wanted to do a bigger MINI, in would not be a bigger Countryman but a different body type… Simplicity and making the range easy to understand is one of the prerequisites of MINI, and it should stay like this. We don’t want to become a second BMW,” Wurst said.
GALLERY: 2022 F55 MINI The Coopers Edition
GALLERY: 2024 MINI Cooper Electric
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
