Mini is moving into the future and going back to its roots.
Future: It’s all electric.
Roots: The 2025 Mini Cooper will, first of all, be called the Mini Cooper again (the current model’s “hardtop” designation is going away). And the Mini will be… well… mini. It’s shorter than the outgoing model.
Classic Look, Distilled
You don’t radically redesign the Mini. The faithful want it to stay faithful.
But designers have distilled the icon. The new look may technically be a departure from the proportions of the original 1959 Mark I Mini. Still, it calls it to mind more precisely because the look is so uncomplicated.
The body almost completely lacks fender flares, uses flush door handles, and loses the “side scuttles” – little decorative elements at the rear of the fender that characterized the last Mini. Mini says this deletion “places even more emphasis on the body paint finish on the larger body surface.” We’d have to agree. It makes us curious to see what customizations Mini will offer since the company is known for the most expressive paint options on the road.
The big circular headlights are still here, but they’re now customizable. Optionally, buyers can order daytime running lights with adjustable light signatures. An octagonal false grille holds more body-color metal than mesh surface.
High-Tech Interior Modeled on the Low-Tech Original
The cabin is ultra-modern minimalism. It borrows the sparse nature of the original, with just three major design elements. But the three are as updated as possible.
The 1959 Mark I featured a big bakelite steering wheel. The 2025 model gets a small-diameter wheel in its place. Base models will come with no driver’s instrument screen. Optionally, a head-up display will give the driver basic driving info in their line of site.
The Mark I got a single round gauge in the center of the dash. The 2025 models will use a circular touchscreen in its place. Running its Mini-developed operating system, it displays “driving-relevant content such as the vehicle speed” at the top, temperature settings at the edges of the screen, and entertainment and navigation info in the center.
The 1959 original had a simple pill-shaped bar with a few switches under the gauge. It returns as the home of toggle switches for driving modes (more on that later), the volume bar, and the parking brake.
Drivers can also control most settings with voice commands. Say “Hey, Mini,” and you’ll trigger the Mini Intelligent Personal Assistant. It “can control navigation, telephony, entertainment, and numerous other vehicle functions.”
It learns your habits over time. For instance, “the vehicle can learn to automatically open the window when entering a car park” so you can swipe in, Mini says. If owners choose, the assistant can appear on the screen as Spike, the Mini bulldog.
All-Electric
In 2021, parent company BMW announced plans to take Mini all-electric by 2030. The effort commences with the signature model.
Persistent rumors say a gas-powered model is planned. So, we may have more news. But, for today’s reveal at the 2023 Munich Motor Show, Mini has only electric models to show off.
The 2025 Mini Cooper will come in two trim levels. The Cooper E gets 184 horsepower from a single electric motor, good for a zero-to-sixty-two-mph run in 7.3 seconds. Mini says it gets 305 km (190 miles) between charges. But that figure is calculated with Europe’s testing regime, which tends to produce longer ranges than America’s. So, we anticipate a fairly short range by 2025 standards.
The Cooper SE will get 218 hp. Mini doesn’t say whether it gets there through a second motor, so we don’t know if that means all-wheel drive (AWD). We’ve asked and will update this story when we hear back. It’s good for 6.7 seconds to 62 mph and 402 km (250 miles) in European testing.
The Cooper E can charge at speeds up to 75 kWh, while the Cooper SE can take in energy at 95 kWh. Mini says that rate allows both to go from 10% to 80% charge in under half an hour, connected to a DC fast charger.
Driving “Experiences”
Mini is keeping details about the suspension quiet for now but says it is “tuned for spirited handling.” Highly preloaded stabilizer mounts on the axles should make for reduced body roll.
But much of it is tuneable. The Cooper offers several driving modes (Mini calls them “experiences”), selectable through a toggle switch.
Go-Kart mode “emphasizes the racing DNA of the MINI Cooper in a particularly emotional way by adjusting the agility and stability of the chassis set-up.”
Green mode goes for efficiency, adjusting regenerative braking to recharge the battery more and make the most of range.
Each mode has a distinct sound profile.
This morning’s reveal leaves out a few things we’re confident we’ll see, including a John Cooper Works high-performance model. So, we have the strong impression Mini is not done revealing its new model. But the 2025 Cooper seems like many steps in the right direction.
It brings back the name you were already using for the car, simplifies the exterior, and mimics the classic interior while bringing the latest technology in unobtrusive ways. The range looks like it may be a limitation. But otherwise, the 2025 Mini Cooper is what Mini fans hoped for.
