The look of Mini's upcoming all-electric model will be previewed in a concept at next month's Frankfurt motor show.
Mini has revealed its electric concept. Click here for the latest
The concept will offer a first glimpse of the model's design and its technical specifications before production starts in 2019.
Parent company BMW confirmed last month that Mini's all-electric model will be constructed at the brand’s plant in Cowley, Oxfordshire, and be based on the three-door variant.
The new model is to be built alongside the rest of the Mini range but it will use a new electric drivetrain that will be made in BMW’s e-mobility factories at Landshut and Dingolfing in Bavaria, where the BMW i3's drivetrain is also built. Range is predicted to be at least 250 miles.
The announcement that production will be in the UK quelled concerns that BMW could produce the electric Mini entirely in Germany, partly due to economic uncertainty created by the prospect of a hard Brexit.
Autocar confirmed the electric Mini’s development late last year following an exclusive interview with Mini boss Peter Schwarzenbauer. The 57-year-old German said the car’s 2019 arrival was significant because that’s when the “next step in battery technology” will make the model to be viable for market.
The car will join petrol and diesel versions of the three-door Mini and is part of wider plans to electrify more of Mini's range. The process began this year with the recently launched Countryman S E Cooper plug-in hybrid.
The strategy was first outlined in BMW Group’s Strategy Number One Next paper, which was tabled by chairman Harald Krüger last year and targets up to 500,000 electric car sales annually by 2025, representing 20% of total volume. It involves the launch of an electric X3 in 2020, the fully autonomous iNext model in 2021 and more models off the same electric platform in the following years.
