1961 Mk1 Morris Mini Original Left Hand Drive Car No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2025 Mini Cooper interior reveals minimalist retro design, massive circular screen

Mini just dropped a teaser for its 2025 Cooper, and it’s all about the new interior. And while Mini might be calling this a teaser, itÂ’s essentially a full, visual reveal of the new CooperÂ’s insides. The changes and updates are everywhere, as this new Mini shares practically nothing with the outgoing model. Its new centerpiece is a massive, circular display that appears to be showing off new infotainment system software. All of your vital information is housed within this huge screen. We can see the gear selection, electric range, power meter, navigation hub and media player all in the middle and top half of the screen. On the bottom corners are temperature control dials, and in the bottom middle is a row of shortcut icons that will presumably pull up larger menus of those items. The traditional instrument cluster is gone, but Mini has integrated a pop-up glass HUD display in its place, so youÂ’ll thankfully still have a lot of the important items right in front of your face. Just below the center screen is what Mini calls the “toggle bar.” It houses switches and knobs for things like selecting a gear, turning the car on and off and the various drive modes. Quick toggles for the defrosters and the hazards sit here, too. Interestingly, the steering wheel has more buttons than the center console, and the steering wheel itself is a new design. YouÂ’ll notice the strap-like third bottom “spoke” of the wheel and the ultra-chunky top part of the wheel — Mini says itÂ’s smaller in diameter than the current wheel, too. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Minimalism dominates the rest of the interior. The dashboard is simple with a basic upswept look, but itÂ’s augmented with fancy lights and animations that play through the fabric. Mini designed a horizontal air vent that integrates beautifully with the new dash, too. As for the doors, the materials look upscale and the armrest looks comfortable. We canÂ’t see the whole center console, but a pair of USB Type-C charge ports are positioned up front with a wireless phone charger right there, too. A pair of cupholders sit aft of this, and thereÂ’s no BMW iDrive knob to be seen.  As you can see from the video (above) where the original Mini interior morphs into the new one, the designersÂ’ inspiration for the 2025 model is fairly clear. Pare back, and bring the retro vibes in a digital way.

Mini Cooper SE Prototype First Drive Review | This electric hatch is a suburban belter

MUNICH, Germany — A battery-electric Mini SE? Haven't we been here before? Well, yes: A decade ago, as part of its "i Project," BMW conducted a worldwide field trial of some 750 lithium-ion battery equipped two-door Mini Coopers. It was launched at the 2008 L.A. Show, and the lithium-ion battery pack took up most of the space normally occupied by the rear seats. Nevertheless, interest in the 450 lease vehicles offered in the U.S. (at $850 a month) was strong, with more demand than cars available. One result of the 2008-2011 trial was parent company BMW learned that the average owner of a two-door Mini drives about 25 miles a day, and the company is hoping the battery Mini will be an ideal (sub)urban-run-around for two- or three-car families. Now BMW is about to launch a production Mini EV (based on the two-door model, but with the full complement of four seats), which goes on sale at the end of the year. This will join the Mini Countryman All4 plug-in hybrid in the electrified Mini stable, but while the Countryman has an EV range of about 12 miles, this battery Mini will travel around 120 miles on a single charge. The reason we can't be too definite about the new Mini's capabilities is that BMW isn't allowed to "advertise" the car this far in front of its on-sale date. We caught up with the prototype model, mummified in camouflage tape, at an off-the-road driving event held at BMW's Munich driving center on the former military air base of Furstenfeldbruck, now known as Maisach. The drivetrain is based on the middle model of BMW's i3 range, the i3S, with its 135 kilowatt/181 horsepower motor and 94 amp-hour, 33 kilowatt hour battery. The battery is a 96-cell lithium-ion unit from Chinese supplier CATL instead of BMW's previous supplier, Samsung, and it weights 441 pounds. Unlike the team-built, mainly carbon-fiber i3, the Mini is a standard three-door model that runs down the production line in Oxford, with a metal subframe that houses the electric motor, inverter, transformers, and control electronics so they can be slotted into place like a conventional driveline. We can extrapolate a few things about the Mini from the BMW i3S. As well as its working range of 120 miles, the i3S has a top speed of 100 mph and will accelerate from 0-62 mph in 7.7 seconds. With over 360 pounds more to pull about, the 2,998-pound Mini EV will be slower, with less range, especially if used in cold conditions.

Mini reveals new design details, including a round touchscreen

It’s not that the Mini brand wants to reinvent the wheel. Except that maybe it does. It's even reinventing the circle. “Charismatic Simplicity” is what the brand has termed its new design language, which will show up on a new family of all-electric models. The looks will appear on the next-generation Cooper and Countryman. The interiors reflect the most noticeable changes on the cars, marked especially by a round OLED (organic light-emitting display) — yes, the entire central circle of the infotainment system will be a touch-sensitive display. It will have a diameter of 9.4 inches and will combine all the functions of the infotainment system and the instrument cluster. Touch control will manage infotainment and climate functions. That's certainly the most intriguing detail previewed, but Mini did not share images of the touchscreen. Here's all they've shared so far:  At the centre of the visually reduced interior is the circular central instrument display iconic of MINI, which will be reinterpreted in the form of an OLED display in the upcoming model family. MINI is the worldÂ’s first car manufacturer to offer a touch display with a fully usable round surface. The OLED display has a diameter of 240 millimetres and combines the functions of the instrument cluster and the on-board monitor. The sleek design and frameless look give it a particularly high quality appearance. The touch control enables a completely new, minimalistic user interface that also controls the integrated infotainment and climate functions. With the purist dashboard as a stage for the circular central display, MINI continues the traditional design heritage of the classic MINI. The steering wheel, not really reinvented but tweaked, will be available in a couple of versions, with either two spokes or three, and Mini will offer a variety of colors, patterns and fabrics for the seats. Finally, the alloy wheels are updated, to “no longer focus on the sculptural nature of the spoke structure, but on a graphic design characterized by strong color contrasts,” the company says. “This creates an illusion of size, which is further emphasized by the outward-pointing spokes.” “Our purist, progressive approach combines the simplicity of functional elements with the emotionality that Mini is renowned for,” says Oliver Heilmer, head of Mini Design. “We are convinced that the conscious reduction to a few, but expressive elements enable innovations that would have been unthinkable before.”