MINI plotting super-mini car

Have you ever watched a modern day MINI cruise past and thought, it's not that small?

You wouldn't be alone.

In conversation with the new head of MINI, Bernd Koerber, carsales.com.au has learned that a smaller sub-compact version of the British-built hatchback worthy of the term 'Mini' is back on the agenda – thanks in large part the brand's EV push.

When talk turned to the new MINI Cooper SE, the car-maker's first all-electric model that will be on sale in Australia from mid-2020, Koerber said there were now more possibilities for expanding its product portfolio.

"Electromobility has a lot of benefits," he said. "Let's put it like this: you would have the chance for example to make MINI smaller, so it is smaller again while keeping the same functionality."

MINI is not developing a vehicle as small as the original Morris Mini-Minor designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and built between 1959 and 2000, which measured just over three metres long.

But the mooted new model would be smaller than the current runt in the range, the 3.8-metre long MINI Cooper hatch.

"As small as the original? That would be a two-seater effectively," mused Koerber.

"Technically it's possible but it's not what we aim for. But to make the next generation smaller, that's clearly the ambition."

While it won't be yesteryear-small, the idea of shrinking the MINI was inspired not only by the packaging solutions EVs bring, but by identifying key elements of classic 1960s Minis too.

"The starting point of Mini was a very rational solution to a mobility challenge," he said.

"When you look back now, the impression is that MINI has always been this emotional lifestyle brand, but it effectively started from a very rational perspective, because it was effectively a small footprint to provide mobility and [face fuel restriction] challenges they had at the time with the Suez crisis etcetera."

The original MINI was created in response to the 1956 Suez Crisis, when the West lost control of the Suez Canal and oil supplies dwindled.

EVs are becoming more popular today but not due to the scarcity of fuel (although higher prices are having an effect), and Koerber explained that similar principles still apply.

"I think this idea of clever use of space is still with the brand," he said.

Unlike the upcoming MINI Cooper SE, which is based on the same platform as the BMW i3 and has a range of around 250km thanks to its 32.6kWh lithium-ion battery, the next-generation MINI and its EV derivatives will almost certainly be underpinned by a new architecture.

This will allow the brand to develop the smaller model, although maybe not quite as small as the MINI Rocketman concept released in 2011.

The tiny Mini Rocketman concept measured 3.4 metres from bumper to bumper and never made it to production but Koerber's tone suggested the brand is very serious about returning to its roots with a super-mini.

As well as plotting a smaller model, at the other end of the scale the MINI Countryman SUV could grow bigger – and that could also open the door to more possibilities.

"I think what we will see in the next-generation is that MINI gets smaller and bigger.

"And of course if you get smaller and bigger there's more room in-between. So of course we would like to expand this new innovative concept in the MINI range and I think that's another benefit of MINI with electro-mobility.

He explained that the Countryman "...always has to be unique and compact and with the proportions of a MINI. When we manage to achieve that, from my perspective the Countryman can also become a little bit bigger to fill some function requirements.

"Places like US, China and Russia, they say give us a [bigger model]."

The current third-generation range of MINI vehicles are based on parent company BMW's UKL platform architecture, first launched in 2014.

Given the previous two modern-era MINI vehicles had production runs of between seven and eight years, the expanded fourth-gen MINI range could see the light of day by 2021.