Autocar: Next Generation MINI Pushed Back, 3 Door Hatch Potentially Cancelled
Last week we brought you the bombshell rumor that MINI was considering killing the iconic three door hatch in its next generation models due in the first part of the next decade. Reaction ranged from disbelief to anger at us for even publishing it. Now that rumor is picking up steam from the UK’s Autocar. According to the publication BMW has pushed back the models to 2023 and the propose 2019 refresh (the second LCI we reported on earlier this year) may be cancelled.
The plan would have BMW and Chinese automaker Great Wall team-up to create an all new range of models on a bespoke platform. The rational is that the new FAAR platform mean to underpin all front wheel drive based BMWs is seen as too large and expensive for cars in MINI’s price-point. However be warned, not all of this lines up with what we’ve heard. Autocar bases some of this on the fact FAAR is pricey due to it being designed to accommodate internal combustion, hybrid and electric powertrains. However just this past weekend we heard from BMW itself that future MINIs will have the same strategy. Either that means the theoretical bespoke MINI platform created with Great Wall will follow that same design or BMW has decided to use the FAAR platform as the basis for all MINI models (as it did the UKL platform)
Regardless of what happened, when BMW begins to shift to the FAAR platform, the UKL platform will be phased out. This will be the driving force for BMW to make some tough decisions on the MINI brand.
As both Autocar and MotoringFile have previously reported, BMW attempted to work with Toyota on a small car joint venture but that never got off the initial planning stages. The tie-up with Great Wall however looks promising given the Chinese company’s desire to gain prestige and technical know-how from BMW. The first step in this plan will be a China only pure electric model to debut in 2021.
Autocar goes on to walk through what a BMW-Great Wall platform and product range would look like: “There’s unlikely to be a cabriolet and the three-door bodystyle could also be dropped. Expect a compact five-door hatch and new Clubman and Countryman models that will be less bulky and rather more lithe than today’s cars, which are hampered (especially in the case of the five-door hatch) by having to be built on a platform designed primarily for vehicles from a larger segment. Three-cylinder engines with mild-hybrid assistance will be standard issue on the new models. A pure-electric version of the platform, spun into two models, is part of Great Wall’s plan to offer seven EVs in its range by 2025.”
We’ll go on record and say we’d be shocked if the range would get smaller. Given global trends, sizing down doesn’t seem likely. At least not on the Clubman and Countryman.
Like last week file this under conjecture and rumor. While our report last week was sourced from people that have been correct in the past, they were adamant that it’s still being decided and that nothing has been finalized yet. While Autocar makes some interesting points that align with what we’ve heard, we’d still not bet on any of it quite yet.
being designed to accommodate all
<p>It makes sound financial sense for BMW to build the next-gen MINIs from a more affordable platform. UKL is expensive since it originated at BMW and no matter how many vehicles they sell based on the platform (I doubt BMW ever reached the million a year they were hoping for), a UKL will still carry a premium cost because of that.</p>
<p>I once compared it to VW leveraging their bespoke E platform (used in the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, Audi Q8, Bentley Bentagaya, Lamborghini Urus) to craft their Touareg and we all know how well that’s working out for them.</p>
<p>Mini needs the 2/3 door model! It also needs the ROCKETMAN!</p>
<p>Hmm.</p>
<p>This is really sad news, without the 3 door the brand won’t be a Mini anymore. Unbelievable that BMW have forgot what a Mini is suppose to be.</p>
<p>No new model until 2023 are they seriously considering continuing to use the F56 model that long, ten years!</p>
<p>Part of the problem is the age of the current model. When you think about it. It almost déjà vu with the original Mini.</p>
<p>I hope BMW have a rethink. Is BMW in trouble financially as a brand to make such rash decisions.</p>
<p>It is like Apple with their super sized iPhone’s this year and canceling the iPhone SE rather than releasing a new model 4” small phone.</p>
<p>Dare I say is the F56 the last true Mini. If these rumours are true maybe worth buying before the brand is no more.</p>
<p>For me no 3 door Mini well, I need to hold onto my current car a lot longer cause won’t beable to update, it won’t exist.</p>
<p>Nah, the R53 was the last true MINI.</p>
<p>No, the very last true was made by Rover</p>
<p>Actually by BMW, who bought the company in 1994 :)</p>
<p>It was then just a facelift of the original created in the 60’s ;)</p>
<p>True, but when BMW bought Rover in 1994, it discovered that there were no plans to invest any more money on updating the Mini, and that the previous owners were just going to let it die.</p>
<p>BMW not only reversed that decision, it decided to move the Mini up-market with more luxurious interiors, extra sound deadening, twin-point fuel injection and, for the first time ever, a driver’s airbag, side impact beams in both doors, and the radiator moved from the side to in front of the engine.</p>
<p>Sales continued to dwindle and despite a hefty price hike, BMW made no money from the Mini. The BMW board decided, however, that it was vital to keep the Mini in production to keep it in the minds of the public, in preparation for the launch of the all new R-series MINI in 2001. The rest as they say is history :)</p>
<p>Seems like I opened a can of worms on the last true Mini 😉 comment.</p>
<p>Hope not true I would like the next 3 door model to be the true successer (ie best).</p>
<p>Please BMW say it isn’t true?</p>
<p>Don’t give up yet. Oliver Heilmer, MINI’s chief designer, may have dropped a hint in his latest interview with CAR magazine, when he said that the smallest MINI – 3 door Hatchback – “must always be small”, whereas the big MINIs “can be bigger”.</p>
<p>It now all hinges on a second Joint Venture with BMW and GWM to co-develop a small all-electric city car, awaiting approval by the Chinese authorities.</p>
<p>We now know that the UKL platform will start to be phased out in 2021, and will be replaced progressively thereafter by the more technically sophisticated, and more expensive to produce, FAAR platform. BMW will be aiming to produce around 1m units of the platform annually, to recoup its huge investment.</p>
<p>In 2017, total production of the UKL platform was a healthy 850,000 plus units, but still short of the minimum 1m units that BMW would prefer. Included in this total were 371,881 MINIs. It is inconceivable that BMW will not build at least some future MINIs on the FAAR platform, if it wants to achieve its target annual production.</p>
<p>I have attached a list of all the current BMW/MINI models produced on the UKL platform, including the all-electric MINI Cooper E which goes on sale next year, together with a list of the BMW models expected to be produced on the FAAR platform, including the fourth generation “Big” MINIs. Double click on photo <a href="https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b717b55188c28102a21c01e11ba1d4296fd11a8e46fb15180f4114753f578e7f.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc">https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b717b55188c28102a21c01e11ba1d4296fd11a8e46fb15180f4114753f578e7f.jpg</a></p>
<p>“It is inconceivable that BMW will not build at least some future MINIs on the FAAR platform, if it wants to achieve its target annual production.”</p>
<p>This is exactly my thinking and why I believe that we’ll see the larger MINIs likely based on the FAAR platform.</p>
<p>Joint venture with Toyota doesn’t sound bad – Toyota makes good stuff. Joint venture with some Chinese company doesn’t sound appealing at all.</p>
<p>Also a bit bummed that the next generation are being pushed back. I don’t like the F56 but I’d really like to replace my R56 before 2023.</p>
<p>Pffft. I owned two them them–an S hatchback and a convertible–before the uglification of the cars started in 2013. They were fun but overly complex and, after the warranty, expensive to own. I sold mine right after the warranties ended. Now I’m after an old Miata I can work on myself.</p>
<p>With everything getting bigger, Mini (I mean the BMW overlord) had to follow the crowd. That left me behind.</p>