Five-door Mini Cooper confirmed
Next-gen hatch will arrive alongside the new three-door, with hot JCW versions expected to follow
Mini will launch a next-generation version of its five-door Cooper hatch, boss Stefanie Wurst has confirmed, as one member of a “simple” line-up. The British marque has started a major overhaul of its line-up as it begins to move towards becoming an electric brand. It has just launched a new electric version of the three-door hatch, now renamed the Mini Cooper, which will be joined by an identical combustion-engined model.
Mini had not previously confirmed plans to replace the five-door hatch, suggesting that the forthcoming new Aceman compact electric SUV would fill its place in the range between the Cooper and the larger new Countryman SUV. When asked at the Munich motor show last week about a potential future expansion of the Mini line-up, Wurst said: “We have so much to do with the roll-out of the family we’ve just announced.
The Aceman is still missing. The John Cooper Works variations are all to come. We only speak about the three-door but we actually have a five-door coming, and we have a convertible as well.”
The electric and combustion versions of the new Cooper sit on separate platforms, and it is not yet clear if the new five-door will remain ICE-only or gain an EV sibling. It is likely to get go-faster John Cooper Works variants too, because petrol and electric JCW versions of the three-door hatch are confirmed to arrive in 2025.
Although the two versions of the hot hatch will be on different platforms, Mini has developed them to offer similar handling and performance.
Stefan Floeck, Mini’s product line boss, said: “You will see the differences when you drive a combustion-engined car and an electric car. Normally, the combustion cars have a slightly higher maximum velocity, but in terms of acceleration they are not as good. “But I’ve already driven both cars, and the driving dynamic and feeling, even though it’s a different feeling when it comes to the go-kart feeling, is pretty similar. It’s amazing.”
Floeck said the priority was to instil the hot Mini’s trademark “go-kart feeling” in the EV. He confirmed the new Cooper EV platform accepts a twin-motor set-up but stopped short of saying whether the JCW would be all-wheel drive.
John Cooper Works three-door models will land in 2025 EV and ICE five-door Coopers would each use a separate platform
We have a five-door coming and we have a convertible too