BMW is moving towards electrification full-force. In doing so BMW and MINI are announcing that they will be cutting ICE drivetrain variations in half. This will allow both brands to streamline their offerings and allow consumer make more sense of it all. And perhaps most crucially it will help alleviate costs as BMW and MINI look to spend vast sums of money bringing full electric cars to market.

Just how complex is the current offering of drivetrain variations for MINI alone? A BimmerPost contributor (BradM850i) put together a list that demonstrates this in rather glaring terms.

  • B38 6MT fwd/4wd
  • B38 7DCT fwd
  • B38 6AT fwd plus electric motor at rear
  • B48 6MT fwd/4wd
  • B48 7DCT
  • B48 8AT 4wd
  • B37 6MT fwd/4wd
  • B37 7DCT fwd
  • B37 6AT 4wd
  • B47 6MT fwd/4wd
  • B47 8AT 4wd

Then there’s the CLAR platform G platform where thing get really complex (ignoring the F22, F32 as they are effectively EOL) has 17 variants:

  • B48 6MT rwd
  • B48 8AT rwd/4wd
  • B48 8AT rwd/4wd plus electric motor
  • B58 8AT rwd/4wd
  • S58 8AT 4wd
  • B58 8AT 4wd plus electric motor
  • N63 8AT 4wd
  • S63 8AT 4wd
  • N74 8AT rwd/4wd
  • B47 8AT rwd/4wd
  • B57 8AT rwd/4wd

What gets killed? Perhaps some of the clues are in the F40 1 Series hatch which will form the basis of the next generation Clubman and Countruyman. On that car BMW has moved to only 8 variants:

  • B38 6MT fwd
  • B38 7DCT fwd
  • B48 8AT 4wd
  • B37 6MT fwd 
  • B37 7DCT fwd 
  • B47 6MT fwd
  • B47 8AT fwd
  • B47 8AT 4wd

Naturally for the next generation MINI hatch BMW is reported to moving to a all electric platform that will offer several performance and range options. However investment required for differentiation with those will be decidedly less than with ICE drivetrains.