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!
sees rally light
Well that’s on my bucket list.
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
Hey BMW, maybe you should make an electric car we would want to drive. cough not i3 cough
I know that it is completely out of topic but has anyone s85 swapped that classic mini?
Turning on Ludacris mode will feel like this in that little rocket
Sorry, Honda. I’ll pick this instead. I love old Minis.
Nevermind just read the specs (null)
This is the only pure electric car I’d buy. As long as it hops from bump to bump when you go over one it’s fine!