Send Your Classic Mini Back to the Factory For an Electric Conversion

This is getting a lot of press attention.
http://www.1revorg.org/mini.html

 

Do we know for certain that Oxford will NOT also be making the new skateboard SE in the UK?


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Since the conversion is limited to UK Minis, and the purchaser must supply the chassis, I don't believe there's going to be tremendous cashflow. And this project started with the 2018 conversion by a 'select team'. It would seem to be a limited project (although very interesting),

 

I'm just guessing, but I'll bet not in the short term. I don't know how much factory retooling would be needed, but as long as MINI has ICE models I would be skeptical that they'd want to mess with the Oxford production line.

 

Great Wall Motors' L.E.M.O.N. platform (can't make this up) is completely different from MINI's FAAR platform produced in Oxford. I believe MINI is going to China for cost savings. If MINI was going to keep making electric MINI Coopers in Oxford they would have spent the money there instead of investing in a joint venture in China.

 

Forget the R56 Mini E...Here's what could have been from 1966?

 

So if MINI is going all in on electric for all car models, then is the thinking that all production will be in China?

That makes no sense to me that BMW would be planning to close the Oxford factory. I’m assuming that Oxford will slowly transition to only EV production at some future point in time.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Honda closed their Swindon, UK, plant after 35 pre-Brexit years. Swindon had about 3,400 workers vs Oxford's 4,000. Brexit was bad for manufacturing in the UK.

 

Including the giant BMW X model plant in my town! (11,000 employees). BMW is huge in the local economy here in Greenville, SC. Plenty of expansion space to start rolling out some Mini EVs….

 

The fact a lot of legacy car makers, especially BMW, are releasing now ICE platforms at this point is why they are going to end up in trouble in the long term.
Trying to develop EV platforms and battery production etc while at the same time developing new ICE platforms and even, in BMWs case, new engines is why they can’t afford to develop EVs properly or at any pace. Splitting up the R&D dollar.
I’ll give them a pass on the Mini as the existing ICE platform is just so old they obviously started work on the next gen sometime ago before the big uptake in EV sales. But new engine at this point is just throwing money away. They cost a fortune to develop and take at least a decade to break even. That money should be going on batteries.
Oxford will continue to make at least some models for the next gen ICE platform, but the electric will be from China and in order to compete that’s where they’ll stay.
All but the most lean Tesla style manufacturing will be gone from the west as we just haven’t got our act together going lean and having battery plants.

 

Is there a new ICE model coming from MINI? I haven't heard of any, just superficial changes like with the 2022 LCI.

 

I’ve seen plenty of articles along these lines:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/42999/next-gen-2023-mini-cooper-teased-and-yes-it-still-looks-like-a-mini

 

Yep, they're supposedly working on the G56 now, though who knows when it will launch. 2024 model year maybe, though 2025 may be more likely at this point to give the latest LCI a 3 year run.

 

New spy photos of the 2024 model, which is the FAAR platform (apparently our SEs are the UKL platform). No idea where the LEMON fits in, but this tail looks a lot like the un-camouflaged photos from China.

 

L.E.M.O.N. is Great Wall Motors' platform (currently the platform for GWM's Ora Good Cat). I can't imagine Plant Oxford will be refitted to manufacture cars based on that platform. The factory BMW and GWM are building in China will likely be able to produce all the small electric cars BMW/MINI can sell worldwide. The cost of expanding that plant will certainly be less expensive than changing Plant Oxford to manufacture L.E.M.O.N.-platform cars and developing a new UK supply chain for the components comprising that Chinese-built car.

I believe MINI will change the UK-built MINI Coopers to reflect the appearance of the Chinese-built MINI Coopers, but I don't expect many components will be shared between the two. I'm still reeling from the suggestion that the Signature SE models will be Chinese while the Signature Plus and Iconic models will continue to be built at Plant Oxford. Unless the UK-built higher-end models get a larger battery, that would mean the least-expensive SE would offer the greatest range.

Wikipedia provides these paragraphs about the UKL and FAAR platforms--our SEs are built on the FAAR derivative of the UKL platform:
The UKL platform (Untere Klasse, "lower class" in German) is a modular automotive platform developed by German car manufacturer BMW. It is a modular architecture to suit a range of front-wheel-drive and all-wheel drive models.

Another UKL platform derivative is the FAAR platform which was announced in 2017. It is designed with pure ICE, hybrid and electric powertrains in mind.

 

Interesting photo, especially the rear lights. A change from the other photo leaks.
The tail gate looks similar, but different lights.

 

That Spiderman look!