► Production version launches 2019
► First pure EV Mini since 2008
► On display at 2017 Frankfurt show
This is the Mini Electric Concept, an admirably say-what-you-see name for a show car that directly previews an all-electric production model to be launched in 2019.
The concept makes its official debut at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show – click here for all the new cars from the show.
Mini Electric Concept – a fully electric Mini
Utilising a pure battery-electric powertrain with a single electric motor, more details on which will be revealed at Frankfurt, Mini promises ‘exciting driving dynamics’ on urban and rural roads, and ‘maximised range.’
The production version will be the second electrified Mini in the brand’s line up (and the first purely electric one), alongside the Mini Countryman Plug-in Hybrid.
Design
There’s a trad Mini hexagonal radiator grille at the front – but since it doesn’t feed an actual radiator, it’s blanked off to reduce drag.
Headlights and tail-lights are all-LED, with the rear light assemblies each forming one half of the Union Flag as a dot matrix.
Fibreglass air deflectors stand proud of otherwise minimal surfacing. Some of the exterior trim pieces were made by 3D printing, including the recessed surfaces in the air intakes – some of which are real, some of which aren’t.
This isn’t the first electric Mini, is it?
Not quite – in 2008 the Mini E, a pure electric hatchback built in limited numbers was lent to private owners for public trials. Essentially a field study involving 600 cars, it was the first all-electric car from BMW Group to be driven by public users, and data gathered was used to inform the development of the BMW i3 electric car.
The car launched in 2019 will be a full volume production model, however.
There are echoes of the original Mini E in the Electric Concept’s silver and yellow colour scheme – as there is in the same slightly odd ‘E’ logo on the charging socket cap, in the graphics on the car’s flanks, and riffed on in the headlight design.
Click here for all of CAR’s Mini reviews