2020 MINI Cooper Already in Development

Times are changing and, along with them, so are we. The demands of today are extremely different than those of the 1990s or even further back in time. With overcrowding and over 7 billion people in the world, all of them looking for a place of their own inside a big city, the configuration of metropolitan areas will change drastically in the next years.

Just take a look over the biggest cities in Asia, for example. In New Delhi people are basically sleeping on the streets, just to be a part of the big picture while in China’s huge cities the air is so polluted that some people actually make a lot of good money selling cans of fresh air.

The pollution and overcrowding will drive even auto manufacturers in different directions. According to Edmunds, BMW already started working on the 2020 MINI and there might be a radical change hidden in the future plans for the brand.

And it would make sense, especially if the direction they’re going for is towards smaller cars and engines. An all-electric model should be available in the next few years and not necessarily as back as 2020. The technology already exists and test cars fitted with it have already been used as part of the research and development for the i sub-brand. They were called Mini E.

Furthermore, by now, the brand has a completely new image, pushed by BMW. Sure, the old fanatics will still long for the original model but they don’t represent the majority of the customers by now. Most of them are young and know the new MINI, the one that is a fun car to drive as well as a lifestyle statement. In that direction, the British will make more investments.

Going back to overcrowded cities, the upcoming models might see a decrease in size, to deal better with the busy city streets, coming closer to the initial concept that was supposed to make living in a resource-tight economy easier.

The engines might go down a bit more, too. The 1.5-liter unit used today in the Cooper model could be fitting the next JCW as engine bay space might become a problem. The current 2-liter units were mostly used as an experiment to see how they cope with daily usage before being used on a bigger scale inside BMWs.

Lightweight materials from the i sub-brand, like CFRP, magnesium and aluminum could also be implemented as the current generation doesn’t use them, at all. It would be a mandatory move if the engines are to be downsized.

Even the design will probably change, in an attempt to make the brand even more popular. The current model is not a great looking car and BMW wants to address that issue by creating a design studio in Britain, with British designers involved. They even talked about it a while back.

While styling changes are inevitable, certain key elements will remain, to make sure the brand’s DNA is diluted only to a certain point. Even so, we still have to wait around six years before anything is confirmed so you’d better hang on tight.

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Five-Door MINI Cooper S Hatch, Spotted on the Ring

Rumored for over an year to show up at some point, the MINI Hardtop was spotted several times in a 5-door guise. The prototype was even caught completely camo free last year, on an airport strip, heading to some precluded place, probably.

This time we caught up with it on the Nurburgring, the place where every car comes to see exactly how well it handles. The Green Hell is being used by almost every serious manufacturer out there and for good reason. It’s not wearing that nickname for nothing...

Coming back to the spyshots at hand here, the two cars spotted are clearly Cooper S models. You can tell both by the front bumper (that houses two serious air intakes at the bottom) and the bonnet but also by that completely ‘inconspicuous’ S badge on the front grille.

The guys behind the wheel were seriously testing the cars and their new engines, to see how the chassis copes with the added weight from the 2 extra doors that were probably added for more practicality.

The problem is that while you do get more practicality, you also lose some of the car’s agility and sportiness at the same time. However, come to think about it, if you’re more of a practical man, you probably won’t do too much spirited driving anyway.

Under the bonnet, the same 2-liter 4-pot turbocharged petrol engine resides, making 192 HP and 280 Nm (300 Nm with overboost) of torque, mated to either a manual or automatic 6-speed gearbox.

Since this model is expected to be a bit heavier than the 3-door version and not just because of the added doors but also because of the bigger chassis, the performance numbers are also likely to go down a bit.

It’s hard to tell by how much but we’re expecting at least 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. That means this car will probably be doing 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standstill in just over 7 seconds.

No word on the pricing just yet but do expect a decent premium over the 3-door alternative. $2,000 or even more would make sense, at least in the US. However, BMW is yet even to confirm the existence of this car, yet alone talk about pricing.

As for the release date, expect the new model to come out later this year. Our best guess would be somewhere in October, most likely at the Paris Motor Show.

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2015 MINI Cooper S Convertible Spied on the Nurburgring

It’s quite funny to see a grown man wearing a huge helmet, stuck behind a small steering wheel on the Nurburgring. Apparently, the guys from BMW/MINI didn’t pick their testers all that well and one of them could hardly fit inside the new Cooper Convertible while testing its handling on the Green Hell. At least that’s how it looks like in our spy photos.

The Mk3 model was just spotted on the famous German track, wearing the usual camouflage and eating up tires like there was no tomorrow. Fortunately, our spy photographers were there to catch up with them.

The car is definitely a Cooper S model, judging solely by the front fascia and the bonnet. The bumper features those all-familiar air intakes at the bottom and there’s a hood scoop right above the grille that sports a camouflaged ’S’.

That means we’re looking at a MINI running the 2-liter 4-cylinder B48 turbocharged petrol engine that’s making 184 HP and 280 Nm (300 with overboost) of torque, a ‘heart’ that we had the chance to test ourselves earlier this year.

However, unlike our test car, this one has a retractable roof. It’s a soft top, just like all others before it and it looks like it has the same mechanism as on the Mk2 model (at least they look the same).

A launch date for this model hasn’t been announced yet and BMW didn’t even mention the new model but we’re guessing we’re not too far off. Furthermore, if we were to make an assumption, we’d probably say that we’re not more than a couple of months away.

As for the specs, well, the drop top version should be a little slower than the Hardtop. That means that the 0-100 km/h (62 mph) will take a bit longer than 6.8 seconds, probably around 7. Compared to the current model, that would be a 0.3-second improvement.

Prices should also be similar to the outgoing model. If the Hatch serves as an example, the prices could go down in some markets while others will notice a slight increase but no bigger than $500.

 

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