Another week, another major automaker announcing plans to go fully electric. The latest is the BMW Group’s Mini brand, which will introduce its “very last new combustion engine model” in 2025.
Oliver Zipse, chairman of the board of management at the BMW Group, made the announcement at the German firm’s annual conference.
“Mini will be the first BMW Group brand to go fully electric. Mini is perfect for the city – and for e-mobility. We will be releasing the last model with a combustion-engine variant in 2025. By the early 2030s, Mini will be exclusively fully electric,” Zipse said.
From 2025, only fully electric models will be added to Mini’s range. By 2027, all-electric vehicles are expected to account for “at least 50 percent” of all Mini deliveries worldwide. By the “early 2030s”, the entire Mini range will be battery powered, while “still remaining a global brand with a footprint in every region of the world”.
Currently, the Mini line-up includes just a single electric model in the form of the Cooper SE. The successor to the current Countryman, meanwhile, will be produced in Leipzig from 2023 in both combustion engine and fully electric forms.
Based on a new vehicle architecture “developed for all-electric mobility right from the outset”, future battery-powered Mini models will also be produced in China in collaboration with Great Wall Motor (from 2023).
