Two years ago BMW decided to delay the launch of the 4th generation “new” MINI to 2023. Because of this MINI has made the decision to launch an unprecedented second refresh (or more specifically facelift) to keep the F56 fresh. What we have here is a few of the JCW facelift as spied at the Nurburgring.

The originally planned LCI came and went in 2019 with only light changes. So light that we immediately wondered if it was a cost cutting move or something else was brewing. After reaching out to sources we learned that MINI was likely going to apply a second, more style oriented LCI later in the life-cycle of the car.

The JCW facelift will comprise of new styling front and back.

That grille. It’s becoming much more cohesive and yes larger than before. In fact our sources tell us that it’s simply a smaller version of the Clubman’s new 2020 front-end. You can clearly see the resemblance in form in this photo of several 2021 F56 mingled with a refreshed 2020 Clubman.

We now know what they did was take the styling elements that were planned for the first LCI, add a few things and create a second refresh. Given this we believe the 2nd refresh will be almost mostly design focused. We say mostly because it would be very easy for BMW to add a bit more power to the JCW four cylinder given they have several tunes of the same engine well over the current 231 hp version.

No this isn’t it. But sources tell us that the JCW Clubman’s 2020 facelift gives us a very good view of the 2021 F56 JCW facelift.
  • JCW Clubman JCW Countryman

Timeline and Launch Dates

Our sources are rather vague on this last point but we have an idea. Given that the next generation small MINI is scheduled for a late 2022/early 2023 introduction we would expect to see BMW plan for this last LCI to be in the market for almost 18-24 months. That would mean a spring 2021 debut for the JCW facelift.