Mini (marque)


Mini is a British automotive brand founded in Oxford in 1969, marketed by German multinational automotive company BMW since 2000, and used by them for a range of small cars assembled in the United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, China, and Germany. The current Mini range includes the Cooper Hardtop/Hatch/Convertible, Aceman and Countryman. The word Mini has been used in car model names since 1959, and in 1969 it became a marque in its own right when the name "Mini" replaced the separate "Austin Mini" and "Morris Mini" car model names. BMW acquired the brand in 1994 when it bought Rover Group, which owned Mini, among other marques.
The original Mini was a line of British small cars manufactured by the British Motor Corporation, which in 1966 became part of British Motor Holdings. This merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to form British Leyland. In the 1980s, British Leyland was broken-up and in 1988 Rover Group, including Mini, was acquired by British Aerospace. Mini models included the Morris Mini-Minor and the Austin Seven, the Countryman, Moke, 1275GT and Clubman. Performance versions of these models used the name Cooper, due to a partnership with racing team owner John Cooper. The original Mini continued in production until 2000.
Following BMW's acquisition of Rover Group, BMW broke up the company but retained the Mini brand, beginning development of a modern successor to the Mini which was launched in 2001 by BMW and built at the historic former Morris Motors 'Plant Oxford' site in Cowley, Oxfordshire. The Mini Clubman, Coupe and Roadster were also assembled here. The third generation Mini Convertible and second generation of the Countryman were assembled at VDL Nedcar in Born, Netherlands. The Mini 3-door Hatch/Hardtop was assembled at both plants, with the 5-door being exclusively assembled at Oxford. The Paceman and first generation Countryman were assembled by Magna Steyr in Austria. The third generation of the Mini Countryman is produced in Germany at BMW's Leipzig plant. From 2024, all combustion engined Mini Cooper hatch and convertible production will be centred at Oxford. A total of 301,526 Mini vehicles by BMW were sold worldwide in 2012.
Mini vehicles have been active in rallying and the Mini Cooper S won the Monte Carlo Rally on three occasions, in 1964, 1965 and 1967. Mini participated in the World Rally Championship in 2011 and 2012 through the Prodrive WRC Team.

History

1959 to 1990

The original two-door Mini was a small car produced by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. It is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers. The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T.
This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park / Zetland British Motor Corporation factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations including an estate car, a pickup truck, a van and the Mini Moke—a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to 1967, although in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish, along with six other British entrants, which included the first four cars to finish, under a questionable ruling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights.
Initially Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor, until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. The Mini was again marketed under the Austin name in the 1980s.

1990 to 2000

In the 1990s, BMW was seeking to broaden its model range through the addition of compact cars and SUVs. This sparked a series of compact car concept vehicles from the company during the early 1990s. The first were the E1 and Z13, powered by an electric motor and a rear-mounted 1100 cc BMW motorcycle engine, respectively.
In early 1994, BMW acquired the Rover Group from British Aerospace, which owned Mini, among other brands. BMW insisted that even a compact model must feature traditional BMW characteristics to uphold the company's standards and image. The "MINI" marque, however, did not share these standards and BMW saw this as an opportunity to create a competitively priced, yet premium, compact car. This formed BMW's plan to launch the premium BMW 1 Series and the mid-range Mini.
It was at around this time that Rover, too, was working on a successor to the original Mini. Its first concept was the ACV30 which was unveiled at the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally. The name was partially an acronym of Anniversary Concept Vehicle, whilst the '30' represented the 30 years that had passed since a Mini first won the Monte Carlo Rally. The vehicle itself was a two-door coupe powered by a rear-mounted MG F engine.
Just months later, Rover released another concept, this time, a pair of vehicles called Spiritual and Spiritual Too. These vehicles were a more realistic attempt to create a modern Mini, and coincided with BMW's official creation of the Mini project. Although the two-door and four-door pair wore Mini badges, both vehicles remained purely concepts.
In 1998, BMW set out on creating the production Mini. The first aspect that was considered was the design, which was chosen from 15 full-sized design studies. Five of these designs came from BMW Germany, another five from BMW Designworks in California, four from Rover and one from an outside studio in Italy. The chosen design was from BMW Designworks and was designed by American designer, Frank Stephenson. Stephenson penned the new Mini One R50 and Mini Cooper leading the team which developed the E50 car in Munich. This design, being a city car, also fitted into BMW's plan of two compact cars, leaving the supermini class for the BMW 1 Series. After the launch of the new Mini, Stephenson told automotive magazine Autocar:

2000 to present

The last Mark VII Mini, and the 5,387,862nd and final original two-door Mini to be produced, a red Cooper Sport, was built at the Longbridge plant in October 2000. The car was driven off the production line by the pop singer Lulu, and was subsequently housed at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, alongside the first Mini Mark I ever made. The new generation Mini Hatch/Hardtop went on sale in July 2001 and was an immediate sales success.
In February 2005, BMW announced an investment of £100 million in the Mini plant in Oxford, United Kingdom, creating 200 new jobs and enabling production output to be increased by 20%.
In April 2013, Peter Schwarzenbauer became new Mini's managing director, succeeding Jochen Goller.
At the North American International Auto Show in January 2011, BMW announced that it would be extending the Mini range with the launch of two new two-door sports crossover vehicles based on the [|Mini Paceman] concept car, with a coupe version planned to enter production in 2011 and a roadster to follow in 2012.
In June 2011, BMW announced an investment of £500 million in the UK over the subsequent three years as part of an expansion of the Mini range to seven models.
In July 2017, BMW has announced that an electric Mini model will be built at the Cowley plant, in Oxford, that will start production in 2019. It will also be produced in China.
On 1 April 2019, BMW named Bernd Körber as director of the Mini brand and replaced Peter Schwarzenbauer.
In Sep 2023, BMW announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of pounds to prepare its Mini factory near Oxford to build a new generation of electric cars.

List of CEOs

Current Jean-Philipe Parain

Previous CEOs

  • Jochen Goller
  • Peter Schwarzenbauer
  • Sebastian Mackensen
  • Bernd Körber
  • Stefanie Wurst
  • Stefan Richmann

    Current models

Former models

BMC/BL/Rover models (1959 to 2000)

Mini Mark I (1959 to 1967)

Launched in August 1959, the Mark 1 Mini was initially marketed as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor.
Mark I Minis can be identified by exterior door hinges, sliding door glass, tail lights smaller than later cars and a "mustache" grille.
The A-series engine came in a wide range of capacities, initially as an 848 cc, but later the 997, 998, 1071 and 1275 cc engines were added.
The non-Cooper cars had gearboxes with the "magic wand" selector, with 4-speeds while the Coopers has a remote shift selector.
An automatic, 4-speed transmission was introduced in 1965.
In 1960, a 2-seater van was launched, along with an estate, both sharing a longer wheelbase
In 1961 the pickup was introduced, also based on the longer wheelbase

Mini Mark II (1967 to 1970)

The Mini received some minor modifications in 1967 as sold as the Austin or Morris Mini in most markets.

Mini Marks III–VII (1969 to 2000)

The Mark III Mini was launched in 1969, which was an updated version of Mark II with a modified bodyshell. The most visible changes were larger doors with concealed hinges. The boot lid lost the original hinged number plate and its recess shape and a large rear colour-coded lamp was fitted in its place, along with larger rear side windows. Sliding windows were replaced with winding windows—although some Australian-manufactured Mark I Minis had adopted this feature in 1965. The suspension reverted from Hydrolastic to rubber cones. as a cost-saving measure. Production at the Cowley plant was ended, and the simple name "Mini" completely replaced the separate Austin and Morris marques.
The Mark IV, launched in 1976, introduced a front rubber mounted subframe with single tower bolts and larger bushes in the rear frame. In addition twin stalk indicators were introduced with larger foot pedals, and from 1977 onwards the rear indicator lamps had the reverse lights incorporated in them.
The Mark V, launched in 1984, introduced brake discs and plastic wheel arches but retained the same Mark IV body shell shape.
For the Mark VI, launched in 1990, the engine mounting points were moved forward to take 1,275 cc power units, and includes the HIF carburettor version, plus the single point fuel injected car which came out in 1991. The 998 cc power units were discontinued. Internal bonnet release were fitted from 1992.
The Mark VII, launched in 1996, was the final version of the original two-door Mini. For this model twin point injection with front-mounted radiator was introduced, along with a full-width dashboard and driver's side airbag.