New Mini declassified on the Web

Last updated Apr 16, 2022

The next generation Mini hatchback won't hit the market until 2023, but last month the BMW-owned British marque shared photos of a disguised electric-powered prototype, and today photos of the car without stickers have surfaced on social media.

The fourth-generation BMW mini sedan, chronologically, turns out to be full of surprises: photos taken in China are circulating on the Internet, in particular on Twitter by German automotive journalist Greg Cable, about them “Naked” The new Mini is in the company of its camouflaged relatives We don't know how it happened. Perhaps the presentation will take place long before the start of sales in 2023 and a white Mini without stickers was needed for the advertising frame.

The most important discovery is the rear: it is very different from that of the Mini of the previous three generations: the oval taillights are replaced by triangles with a grid pattern in the style of the Spider-Man suit. The official November photographs showed oval lanterns, but this, as it turned out, is fiction – these ovals are drawn, and their slanting connecting lines are real.

The inner corners of the lights are connected by a shiny black bridge, which bears the inscription Cooper S – so this is not a basic version, but a “heated” and, most likely, electric one, since there are no standard exhaust units. The upper line of the trunk lid connector is moved far forward. The door itself is much wider and its glass is recessed inward at the top, giving the Mini a more dynamic shape.

From the front, the Mini is 100% recognizable thanks to the large round headlights and the characteristic shape of the false radiator grille, but note that the hood now does not completely cover the headlights: it has decreased in size, and the front fenders, on the contrary, have increased and become full-fledged (previously there were only meager “cigarette butts” the length of an adult palm).

Overall, the new Mini feels leaner and leaner than the third-generation sedan, with shorter overhangs and a larger rear windshield.

Inside, we see a new steering wheel with side spokes shifted down and a much more concise front panel than the “third” Mini, without a traditional dashboard – only a small economy-type screen, when there is no projection on the windshield, but on a separate retractable glass… A large thin black circle in the center is clearly a new multimedia touchscreen, below them is an oval block with physical toggle switches. Mirrors are now rectangular instead of oval.

The third generation Mini Cooper S hatchback after facelift in early 2021.

We add that there is no reliable information about the platform on which the new Mini is built. Versions with gasoline, diesel and all-electric power plant were officially promised, so theoretically there can be two platforms: for versions with internal combustion engines and for an “electric train”. For Europe, the new Mini will be built at the brand's flagship plant in Oxford, UK (including a convertible, expected in 2025), while the Chinese Mini will be registered in a joint venture with Great Wall.

In 2023, Mini will also introduce the next-generation Countryman crossover, and in 2024 an electric compact van (presumably the Traveler). Mini will launch its latest ICE model in 2025 and go all-electric by 2030.