The concept of the electric version of Mini Cooper, revealed at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, is now being tested in the wild. Its official name is Mini E, and it was spotted in the Alps while recharging.
From far away, you probably won’t notice any significant change in the exterior of the Mini’s EV compared to the standard Mini Hardtop. It has its usual round lights, the same body, and a broad grille section.
However, the grille is the first one that will give out the E model. It is mostly solid since you do not need a lot of airflow for an electric car. There is an open strip, made of circular cutouts, in the middle. Everything else in the front part of the car is pretty much the same.
If you take a side-look, you can notice unique wheels. They are very similar to the ones that we have seen on the Mini E concept in Frankfurt. They’re four spoke asymmetrical alloys. Three of the spokes are open and finished, while the last one is connected to the center of the wheel. The earlier concept suggests that there will be a cover placed over the last spoke.
It is strange that the lights are not the same as those from the last year concept. However, our guess is that they are not final, and we will still see new LED headlamps and the Union Jack taillights featured in the 2020’s Mini E.
There is still no official information about its specifications. However, there are rumors that it will use a single, front-mounted electric motor. Allegedly, BMW intends to use the same setup as the basis for an i1 model, too. We hope that the new model will have similar power (204 hp and 162 pound-feet of torque) to the original Mini E introduced for the 2009 model year, but more range (150 miles).
[Via Autoblog]
