MINI Considering an All Electric MINI Cooper Race Series

Autocar recently caught up with the Head of MINI Stefanie Wurst on the topic of the MINI brand and its support for for motorsports. For those that don’t know MINI has been apart of several racing series since the brand’s relaunch in 2001 including the incredibly entertaining MINI Challenge spec series that has raced in Europe and Japan for years. But with there brand going electric, what could the future of MINI’s racing program be?
Autocar put the question to Wurst at the Munich IAA Motorshow and got some insight into what’s potentially on the table; “We don’t have the big budgets so we have to be inventive. It’s about looking at which kind of platforms can we credibly participate in to emphasise the go-kart feeling and the electric future of the brand” She said.
It’s a prudent response that shows that MINI is clearly looking at continuing Motorsports involvement but in new ways.
She went on, “There are two options. Either we say the MINI Challenge is a format we have to expand to new markets in the future, or we participate in one of the new electric platforms. This is the choice we have to make. What kind of engagement is the right one for us? If it’s one that we own [MINI Challenge] then we would have to export it more: we have it in the UK and Japan, but big markets like China are lacking. I would like to have a more unified strategy.”
It’s great point she makes and one that is even more obvious in North America, one of MINI’s largest markets. Outside of the successful JCW Racing Team (which MINI USA supports, there’s no large-scale MINI visibility in the motorsports. Owning a series like the MINI Challenge surely costs more but that does give brand an opportunity to both control the show and market it from holistically.
What do you think? Should MINI continue to go racing as it transforms into an electric brand or should it stick with ICE race cars as long as it can?
4 Comments
EV racing sounds boring as heck, but with that being said, a bunch of EV Mini’s go-karting sounds the least boring.
I think they should transition to electric racing. They can project ICE sounds if that’s what people want, but to me rally racing is where it’s at. It’s way more entertaining and shorter than NASCAR.
I have been watching NXT Gen Cup (<a href="https://www.nxtgencup.com" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.nxtgencup.com</a>), which is a new junior touring car cup series using modified MINI Cooper SEs – and it’s a blast! I’m also a big fan of Extreme E (<a href="https://www.extreme-e.com" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.extreme-e.com</a>) for electric off-road/rally racing (though there isn’t any MINI representation here…yet). Transitioning to electric racing makes a lot of sense, and I would definitely watch.
I suppose it’s inevitable that MINI will race its electric models, especially in view of the latest news. Stefanie Wurst, Head of MINI, stated during an interview in June, that manual gearboxes in future MINIs were 99% unlikely. She went on to say that 99% is not 100% and that she was still hopeful that manual gearboxes could still be an option.
Fast forward to the recent reveal of the MINI Cooper Electric and MINI Countryman Electric, however, where Stefanie Wurst told ‘Top Gear’ that manual gearboxes will not be an option in the next generation MINI Cooper ICE and MINI Countryman ICE. The last MINIs to have manual gearboxs will roll off the production line at Plant Oxford in February 2024.