BMW Has Made An All-Electric Classic Mini, And We're In Love

BMW has given an old Rover Mini an all-electric makeover for the New York Auto Show

28 Mar 2018

BMW Has Made An All-Electric Classic Mini, And We're In Love

Remember Honda’s Urban EV concept? It blended ultra-cool retro styling with a city-friendly all-electric powertrain to make the kind of EV that even petrolheads can get on board with.

Now, BMW has cooked up something similar via its Mini brand. Well, sort of. The car you see here may look like one of the late, Rover-built Minis, but it’s had the dinky stock petrol engine whipped out and replaced with a bunch of batteries and a single electric motor.

There isn’t a whole lot of technical detail in the press release, but Topgear.com reports that it’s packing 30 lithium-ion batteries, weighs about 770kg, and has a range of 65 miles. Top speed is a modest 75mph.

The point of all this? With this cute little EV, Mini apparently “sends out a clear signal demonstrating its commitment to retaining the brand’s unmistakable character whilst embracing innovative zero local emission technology.” That’s lovely and all, but can’t help but be distracted wondering how awesome it’d be if Mini put this New York Auto Show one-off into a limited production. After all, if Land Rover can restore, upgrade and sell a bunch of Defenders with V8s, perhaps Mini can breathe new life into a few crusty old Minis…

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

I want one

Hey, BMW! Leave our classic Minis alone!

Oh no, they stole your car and future proofed it. The horror!

sees rally light

Well that’s on my bucket list.

Nothing better for a little city electric car than a couple of high energy rally lights

That makes sense, especially giving the small size of the car, but I feel like this is going to be stupidly expensive if it goes into limited production

Not to mention the obvious downsides of mutilating classic Minis. I’d love this in the form of a replica car though.

Hey BMW, maybe you should make an electric car we would want to drive. cough not i3 cough

The i3s is actually pretty cool. Not amazing but it’s one of the few “fun” EVs for sale. I mean, compared to a Leaf or Prius it’s as good as an M3.

The i3 is one of the only EVs that’s fun to drive. Pity that they had to go and make it look “futuristic” (read: ugly) and give it rubbish range.

To drive, the i3 is decent to drive. The problem is that it is a similar amount of fun as the Ford Fiesta, which is a lot cheaper, better looking in most peoples opinion, and more reliable.