Powered by
Subscribe to the only car newsletter you’ll ever need

Mini to become an electric-only brand by early 2030s

 

In what is quickly becoming a trend in the automotive industry, Mini has set a date in the very near future when it will no longer sell cars with a combustion engine.


Mini has announced overnight that it will become an electric-only brand early by the early 2030s with its last combustion-engined car to go on sale in 2025.

The announcement was made at the BMW Group’s annual conference in Germany alongside the unveiling of the fully-electric BMW i4 Gran Coupe.

Mini Hatch 2021 Social
BMW Group has reveal at its annual conference that Mini will transition to an electric-only brand in the early 2030s

Oliver Zipse, the group’s chairman of the board of management, said Mini would be the first brand not to offer a combustion engine in their lineup, with BMW and Rolls Royce to transition more slowly.

“Mini is perfect for the city and for e-mobility,” he said. 

“We will be releasing the last model with a combustion-engine variant in 2025. By early 2030s, MINI will be exclusively fully electric.”

Mini already has the SE hatch EV within its lineup along with other plug-in hybrids

It comes as the United Kingdom looks to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 in a bid to slow down increasing concerns over emissions, with other European countries set to follow in 2035. 

The move by Mini is the latest in a series of EV-only declarations from manufacturers with Jaguar setting their target for 2025, Bently by 2030 and General Motors who will only sell EV passenger cars by 2035

2020 Mini Countryman PHEV review4
Mini will release its last new combustion engined car in 2025 before switching entirely to EVs in 2030

Mini already has quite a bit of electric hardware in their ranks with plug-in hybrid versions of the Countryman available for years and the fully-electric Mini SE – which still has some teething issues with its limited range to 233km according to WLTP.

BMW says it plans to sell around seven million electric vehicles before 2030 and with a rapidly expanding line up that already includes the i3 hatchback and will add the iX3 midsize SUV and iX large SUV to Australia showrooms in the near future.

Chasing more Mini?