Georg Kacher on Mini and BMW’s EV rethink
Don’t let the modest scale of the Mini’s latest facelift (see below) fool you into thinking there’s not a huge amount of change coming. Plans for Chinese company Great Wall to create two electric Minis for the local market, and perhaps beyond, in 2022 have now been scrapped. That’s unrelated to the current Oxford-produced Mini Electric, which is very much part of the line-up. This is not because of any falling out between Great Wall and BMW. Rather, it’s that Great Wall chairman Jack Wey is seeing more potential in using the tech for a range of more upmarket products – although they may be hybrids rather than full electric cars. We hear that he may be on the verge of unveiling a whole new brand, Zhiji, that could o er as many as nine di erent models based on the same modular components set: three SUVs, a sporty crossover, a roadster, coupe, saloon and fastback.
Where this leaves BMW-branded small electric cars is unclear, but there’s no shortage of options – BMW has trademarked the whole i1 to i9 series of names, and their X o shoots. The proposed i1 entry-level electric hatchback/crossover is, we’re told, on hold. But it could be restarted on the back of the development work done by BMW and Great Wall, or it could be among the first fruits of a still-evolving platform programme for Mini and entry-level BMWs.
The innovative and great-to-drive i3, which still sells over 20,000 a year, is likely to have its badge hijacked in 2022 by an electric-only version of the long-wheelbase 3-series in China. It will be made by Brilliance, in which BMW has a 50 per cent stake.