Mini is going to debut their new electric car (or crossover or whatever these are known as now) for North America at the Climate Week NYC event to be held in Lansing, Michigan. I’m kidding! Of course Climate Week NYC is in New York City, and that’s where this new, not-so-Mini Mini is being revealed to America. This new Mini is the largest Mini ever, and Mini is pushing it hard as it’s a key component of their plan to be an all-electric brand by 2030. They need a popular, mainstream EV crossover, and that’s what Mini is hoping the new Countryman becomes. I’m not sold on the looks exactly, but it’s not boring, and the interior is pretty striking. You know, from this three-quarter angle, with those particular reflections, I like the look?
What I did manage to get some footage of is the most important thing to note: Mini seems to have fixed its horrific rear turn indicator nightmare that was on the previous Countryman, where the Union Jack-style taillight design caused the turn signal arrows to look like they were pointing in the opposite direction. Look at the video here:
I did get to very briefly sit in one that was being shown at the Goodwood Revival in the UK, and while it was a bit too crowded to get usable pictures, I did get a good sense of what the interior feels like, and I think that’s where this car will make its biggest impression. The interior is minimalistic but quite comfortable, roomy and with a lot of novel materials used. Here’s a GIF of what the old taillights used to look like, btw:
Back to the interior, though; the dashboard is especially striking, as it uses a very novel round OLED display, on a fabric-covered dashboard surface that has colorful patterns projected onto it, patterns that vary by drive mode and perhaps do more. I’m not entirely certain if they’re just decorative or may have some status-indicating function as of yet, but I’m very curious.
Looking closely at the Dash and door cards, you can see there’s a lot of use of what I believe are some kind of sustainable, coarse-weave fabrics as opposed to the traditional plastics and rubbers and faux or genuine leathers. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve seen this done on cars (think about early Fiat Panda interiors, for example) but I’m always pleased to see new approaches to the concept.
The overall visual experience is quite minimalistic, at least according to Mini, who describes various aspects of the car’s design as “expressive minimalism with character” and I guess I can agree to that. Oh, also, in that image above, you can see what I believe are the projector units behind that big round screen that project the dot pattern onto the dashboard surface. Those vents are interesting, too, also quite minimal, but hopefully they direct air around well enough.
I only got to sit in the back seat for a moment when I was at Goodwood, and while my Shtetl Hobbit dimensions aren’t really the best benchmark here, I had plenty of leg and headroom. It’s a boxy car, so the interior is going to be fairly roomy no matter what, and it seems to be.
Exterior-wise, I’m pretty conflicted. From some angles I think it looks clean and tidy, a nice modernist update to some of the essential Mini elements, but then I see the front and I’m not so sure. The headlights have been recast from the original round/ovoid designs over the years and are now sort of heptagonal shapes, with a DRL ring on the outside and some projectors inside. I think this was done to gradually give the car a more aggressive face, and they did, but does a Mini really need that?
The fake grille I’m also a bit torn on. The crucial identifying elements of the Mini face do include that distinctive grille area, and what Mini is doing here is, I suppose, a sort of playful pattern-and-color-based take on the visual idea of a grille, but I’m not so sure it works. Should the big bumper area in the lower part, still surrounded by the basic grille shape, be body colored, or fit in with the grille? Like, would this be better?
Maybe? Hm. I mean, it doesn’t look like everything else out there, and I’m delighted to see such an unashamed green, so there’s that.
In profile, it’s clean, and the somewhat tall and stubby proportions still retain some feeling of Mini, despite its larger size. One detail I’m really unsure about though; it’s hidden by being black on this car, but there are other variations of it, as you can see here. It’s this thing by the C-pillar:
I guess it can vary color based on if you have a white or black roof? The All4 version seems to be for the all-wheel-drive variant, while the one shown in the US press release has that sort of Union Jack-like type of pattern, or a double-headed arrow, whatever it is. From the inside, as you’d guess, these little flaps or whatever do take a pretty big visibility toll, and I don’t really know what their purpose is. Was a designer just hedging their bets by making something so otherwise minimal? I’m really not sure.
When viewed from behind, I’m starting to think that the little flaps are like the modern equivalent of a vestigial landau bar.
The taillight design I think is generally good, with the Union Jack motif composed of little triangular, rectangular, and rhomboid elements: 
Hopefully the US spec one will retain an amber indicator (which seems to be formed of correctly-facing arrows, in the center part there) but knowing how US models tend to be, I’m not going to get my hopes up.
Specs-wise, the press release for the US model doesn’t go into details, but there are some out there, just not in the absurd non-metric units we still use here. It’s ok, I’ll do the math. We do know that the new Countryman has a longer 105 inch wheelbase and comes in two levels of power: There’s the Countryman E with 204 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque or an SE version with 313 hp and 364 lb-ft. Range is about 269 miles, though I’m don’t think official EPA numbers have been given yet.
So what do we think of this new electric Mini? Overall, it seems generally usable and capable, a practical package that’s stylish in a mostly understated way. I’m still not totally sold on the look, and I don’t think it has a frunk – if it does, nothing has been said about it – which I still regard as a negative. Mini should be good about interesting, non-grayscale color selections, which is nice, and hopefully there’s an attempt to make it engaging to drive, which is also a key part of the Mini heritage.
Will people pick one of these over a Tesla or Mach-E or electric Volvo or VW or whatever? Does it have enough essential Mini-ness to be appealing to their traditional niche Mini-loving market? I’m not sure.
But at least they fixed the damn turn signals.
The exterior design looks like a Chinese knockoff of a Mini, and I mean that in the most pejorative sense.
That was my reaction as well.
I think I’ve seen something like this on AliExpress
I’m with you Torch, not sold on the look. It looks like a Dodge product or something. How do you clean that dash? Vacuum?
Front fascia looks like a*s
The rest does not offend, tho
A Mini in name only.
If they keep the Union Jack taillights, that turn signal, range of 200 on the freeway and 30kish price (mid 30’s top), I am in.
It’s just unique enough……
The exterior is ugly, and I usually like Minis. I still don’t dig the center-mounted speedometer either. However, I agree that the interior is nice-looking, and even if those projected patterns are just for looks, they look pretty good, so I want to know more. I just got an Acura, and it’s the first car I’ve ever had with interior trim lighting (whatever you call it), and it’s meaningless, but I kinda like it anyway.
it’s so ugly I can’t stop giggling. which is great! will give me a little reprieve from all the cybernetic pissed off robot Rav4s and whatnot on my commute, and bring me fleeting moments of joy.
Just curious why the design brief was nyan cat?
Are there any modern designs that Autopia actually likes? It seems to me that every article about a new car is overflowing with folks poo poo ing the design. I’m not saying this is GREAT (it isn’t, it’s just kind of “okay” to me) but I don’t think it’s as horrible as everyone is making it out to be.
It’s just a boxy hatchback that looks like an update of the current car. It also comes in fun colors, which everyone wants and agrees are cool and good. I don’t think it’s anything mind blowing but it’s just not worth wasting the energy to hate on….those cognitive resources are much better spent on war crimes like the BMW XM.
The only current car with a 100% approval rating (well minus me, I think it’s silly looking plus I’m a contrarian) that I’ve seen here is the Honda E.
It’s true. Love me some Honda E.
Lucid Air, maybe?
Good Lord, thaat thing fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Then they painted it Ugly Tree Green.
What a stupid car.
If I were to get a Countryman EV, it would probably be based on size. This thing is the same size as a Kona, Niro, XC40, and only marginally larger than a Bolt EUV.
When measured against larger flagship competitors like the ID.4 or Ioniq 5, the Countryman has a pleasant interior but misses on core functionality. Unless they work some efficiency magic, the Countryman will have the same range and charging speed as the iX1, which is inferior to flagship EVs in the USA.
i’ve hated every new mini, except the first generation, for being too try-hard ersatz. i guess in the same sense that slasher and monster movies rely on body-horror: just close enough to be akin to something beloved, but not really. does that make sense?
anyway this new one is just far enough away, for me, from the “mini” ideal, that it’s a whole new thing, and i like it. i don’t like crossovers, but i don’t reckon there will be any new actual cars when i need my next vehicle, so i’m resigning myself to a cross over or a van.
You captured how I feel too, with most retro designs – after the novelty of the design and return fade away, it feels forced. Especially if there’s a direct non-retro equivalent like the Beetle and Golf.
There’s attributes the newer Minis had that I’ve appreciated, and I can appreciate it for being something different out there in the market, but the designs never did anything for me personally. With this, though some of the details are a little off, something about it works for me.
MINI backed themselves into a corner, the entire brand image is based around one, single model of car that was built, mostly unchanged, for 41 years. They did one updated 21st century version of the 1950s design, which came out OK, but BMW would never allow anything close to an extended production run, so they keep going back to the same well over and over and doing modern rehash after modern rehash based on the same ’50s source material, because it has to both look like a Mini and look like a new car, different from the previous new MINI. Only so many variations you can do before all the good ideas have been done already.
In retrospect, I wonder if Rover’s direction would have been better. They wanted to build a car that would be for the late 1990s exactly what the Mini had been in the late 1950s – highly space efficient, economical, inexpensive, and radically modern, able to potentially have a long production run without becoming dated too quickly. BMW wanted an upscale retro sport compact, not a modern city car, recognizing that the Mini was by then being sold as a fashion accessory vs practical transportation
Boy the exterior is a YIKES, but that interior is quite lovely, I agree on that.
Let’s see how many problems it has. Then we’ll see if it’s a real Mini 😛
The exterior looks like a cheap unlicensed knock off of a Mini. Pass.
The exterior is aweful. I posted on oppo that its a mixed bag of angular and rounded. Its neither cute and charming, nor aggressive, its not simple, its not retro or modern. Its awful. Its basically a Chinese copy of itsel.f
Looks fine inside and out to me, but then again, I dislike very few cars based on appearance alone.
The circular touchscreen is certainly a unique take. I’ll always advocate for physical climate control buttons, though. And if that’s also the speedometer and other vehicle function display, I have a bad feeling about Apple Carplay and Android Auto.
The headline graphic says “biggest Mini ever”, but what were the dimensions of the last generation? I don’t have any kind of mental figure for what they would’ve been, to compare them to the new dimensions you provided.
Ouch, my eyes.
Oh dear. The Mini lineup was distinct for being the only happy looking cars on the road. Opting for a semi-angular look is sad, and makes the car look like it’s annoyed about something.
I like dash fabric as long as GM isn’t involved. Hopefully they opted to use something that’s doesn’t feel like 80 grit to the touch like the Malibu and Cruze I’ve been in.
imagine how often you have to clean it? Anyone with kids, animals that ride along or eat food in their car are going to be in hell. How many cleanings until the color fades? Or how much sun in one spot and not another?
I’m sure that’s why the GM fabric was seemingly made from the scrubby side of a sponge.
UV is something that may pose a serious issue over time. As for kids, I’ve never known a single person with a Mini of any kind, and children. Though I imagine now that the Countryman seems to be the size of any other small crossover, that it may become more rational for family duty now. That being said, even my children, who I swear someone must be spraying down with maple syrup and tossing bottom of snack bag crumb dust all over each day, haven’t managed to get their grubby hands on the dash yet.
Amusingly, I had an art teacher in high school that had a first gen mini (manual!) and two children in car seats. She was a pretty big woman too. I was always impressed with her for keeping that car for as long as she did. She eventually upgraded to something bigger…a Yaris!
I’ll admit, some of the largest people I know, drive the smallest cars.
Speaking of Yaris, I have a friend that’s 6′-7″ that owned one, and an E46. If there was anyone that I would give a pass for needing a large vehicle to fit into, it would be him. But he insists that if anyone tells you they don’t “fit” into a car (excluding roadsters), they’re full of shit, so that’s that.
I have another friend with a wife, two kids and a dog they bring everywhere, that made their Fit work for a shockingly long time.
Story is, if you truly want to make a small car work, you can.
It’s like Subaru designers were given the task to design a Mini. Same kind of flabby, undefined surfaces and messy detailing that you find on a Forester. It strangely has the same unique mix of a both dull and bad design.
I’m firmly of the opinion that while mini is an adjective in English, it’s a Noun in German.
I like the outside from certain angles, but I hate the dash.
I’m sure about its looks. All species of Mini should have round headlights. The new face looks like somebody punched it in both eyes.
It’s not good, in fact it’s very ugly, like it looks like a GTA3 knockoff. Also they got rid of the clamshell hood, which is very sad.
Hate the frontend, and why do the brakes need their own cooling fans?