MINI has confirmed some of the technical details of the incoming new Countryman crossover, and it’s coming with a choice of fully-electric models.
Front-drive or four-wheel drive
It’ll come with a choice of front or four-wheel drive and single or twin electric motors. The front-wheel drive version will be badged as MINI Countryman E, and will come with a 140kW or 141hp electric motor driving the front wheels. It’ll have a 54kWh battery pack. The MINI Countryman SE All4 gets two motors, four-wheel drive, and as much as 230kW or 313hp. The SE comes with a larger 64kWh battery pack which gives it a range of around 450km. MINI isn’t giving a range for the front-drive, smaller pack model yet but given the lower power output we can probably guess that it should do better than 400km on one charge.
Bigger than before
This Countryman will be even larger than the old one, with an extra 13cm of overall length, bringing it to 4,429mm. There’s also an extra 6cm of height, making the new Countryman 1,613mm tall and Mini says that means even more headroom inside. As well as being fully-electric, the new Countryman is also making maximal use of recycled and recyclable materials in an effort to keep its carbon footprint down. For instance, the alloy wheels use around 70 per cent recycled aluminium, while the whole car is built using ‘green’ electricity in the factory, further trimming its carbon footprint. Indeed, the factory in Leipzig where the car will be made has four 190-metre wind turbines, which can generate as much as 20gWh (that’s gigawatts) of electricity every year. There’s also an on-site ‘battery farm’ which uses 700 ‘second life’ battery packs taken from expired BMW i3s, which act as an energy buffer to store all that wind energy for calm days. MINI says that: “The decarbonisation of production by replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen is the focus of what is already one of the most modern and sustainable automotive production facilities in the world.”
Recycled materials
Inside the Countryman, the surfaces of the dashboards, steering wheel, vehicle headliner and floor, and floor mats are made of recycled polyester obtained from PET bottles and carpet remnants. MINI reckons that using this alternative to traditional materials reduces CO2 emissions along the value chain by up to 85 percent. There will be petrol-powered versions of the Countryman too, and production should start in November of this year, with sales beginning in time for the early part of 2024.