Rumor: Second Electric MINI to be Made China for Chinese Market
According to Auto Express MINI is already planning a second electric car outside of the upcoming three door electric MINI. This second vehicle is rumored to be produced in China solely for the Chinese market.
Why would MINI go through the trouble of producing an electric vehicle for only one country? China has gone from a pollution leader to a electric vehicle leader in just a decade. Thanks for government mandates (batteries sold in China must be made in China for instance) and various incentives the world’s largest market has shifted dramatically to electric vehicles and automakers are quickly pivoting. For MINI this means going through the trouble of creating a Chinese made electric car meant to satisfy those regulations.
What form will it take and will we ever see it outside of China? If we had to bet we’d guess that it will be a variation of the hot-selling Countryman. We’d also would bet that BMW will likely evaluate conditions in other markets and could potentially shift production to Oxford or even export from China.
<p>Regular readers of MF will already be aware of this because of an exchange of posts between Wahrsager and AnthLC in February, in response to the MF article – IT’S OFFICIAL: BMW IS PARTNERING WITH GREAT WALL MOTOR TO DEVELOP AND BUILD ELECTRIC MINIS IN CHINA – on February 23. Warhsager now lives in China and works for Great Wall Motor. He previously worked in Germany and was lead engineer for electric drivetrain design.</p>
<p>Wahrsager AnthLC 2 months ago
Please read this and the other articles again. They are not building this version for Europe. This is a different version for China! You are confusing two different products. The version built in the UK and the version built in China. BMW’s largest market is China. They build BMW vehicles with Brilliance in China. These cars are NOT shipped to Europe or the US, they are only for China.</p>