New Mini Cooper EV previewed, here in 2024
After recently being busted undisguised on a film set in Los Angeles, Mini has now elected to issue its own images of the next Cooper EV.
Due for an official unveil in late 2023, the new Cooper is expected to start heading for dealerships in May 2024 with an Australian arrival likely before the end of that year.
This will be the second generation electric three-door Mini and this time round it will be officially known as the Cooper rather than retain the current Mini Electric name.
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The Mini Cooper EV will be built in China on a bespoke front-wheel drive platform developed in a joint-venture with Great Wall Motors (GWM).
There will be a petrol-engine Cooper as well, but that will be based on a different platform and be built at Mini’s traditional Oxford home in the UK.
Meanwhile, the first Mini Countryman EV will go into production late 2023 in Germany with an expected Australian launch in 2024.
Sitting between the Cooper and Countryman EVs will be Mini’s first electric-only model, the Aceman crossover, which will effectively replace the Cooper five-door hatch in 2025.
Mini plans to go all-electric by 2030.
The styling of the new Cooper is evolutionary and simplified. The car has a wider track and shorter overhangs combined with a length that stays around 3800mm.
There are expected to be two versions of the Cooper EV starting with the standard version that will roughly match the current car’s 135kW output.
But a more powerful SE version is also in development along with a John Cooper Works flagship.
Battery pack capacities are tipped to rise, adding more range than the real-world 170km the Mini Electric manages.
Pricing will also inevitably be on the increase. The current Mini Electric starts from $55,650 plus on-road costs.
It would be more desirable if the manufacturer could transition the front end look back to being as close as feasibly possible to that of the classic nostalgic appeal of the historical original that we all remember & love, because the front end is now tending shape-wise towards resembling that of a Suzuki Swift. The wide band-aid look across the front “grill” area comes across as looking like a design afterthought amendment inclusion to accommodate the number plate.
As a current SE owner, I must say I am glad I have the first edition 🙂 The new car is still easily identifiable as a MINI, however in my eyes, it looks cheap although it will probably cost more. The quintessential things like clamshell bonnet and union jack tail lights are gone, along with many styling cues. These I can forgive for aerodynamics and efficiency. The one this that I can’t is the **** ugly rear end. What were they thinking! I can’t quite put my finger on the difference, but it just looks…….wrong. I think it is the boot line combined with the width of the body work vs the upper section. Just looks wrong.
Oh, and to correct the range estimate, the real world (from 2 years experience) range of the SE is about 230-240. You can get up to 270 in town and 210 on the freeway. I would get more than 170 going around Bathurst 🙂