MINI plotting tougher Countryman

MINI’s replacement for the current Countryman will be an “authentic SUV” when it goes on sale late 2016, according to British car magazine Autocar.

Drawing influence from the firm’s participation, and 2012 win, in the Dakar rally raid, the new MINI crossover, which has been spied in testing, will take styling cues and inspiration from the Countryman-based Mini X-Raid racer.

Based on the all-new Clubman wagon, the new SUV will also grow significantly in size and be at least 4.25m long -- 150mm longer than the current car and at least 10mm wider.

The current Countryman has proved a huge hit for MINI and now accounts for more than a third of all sales globally.

Expected to also be offered in front- wheel drive, MINI’s new SUV is primed to borrow the all-wheel drive hardware used in the current BMW 2 Series Active Tourer. Engines will also be shared with the all-new Clubman range and the new Countryman could be offered in the future as both a plug-in hybrid and, according to some reports, a high performance JCW version.

Before the new Countryman arrives this year, MINI is expected to reveal its all-new Cabriolet at the Frankfurt motor show. Once again, the MINI droptop is will shun folding hard-top for a fabric roof and to go on sale in the middle of next year.

There’s also rumours that MINI is considering a fifth model to join the hatch, Clubman, Countryman and Cabriolet. The car-maker is believed to be torn between either spinning off an SUV-coupe based on the Countryman or making production versions of its well-received Superleggera roadster or Rocketman concepts.

Autocar believes if it chooses to make the Rocketman, MINI will team up with Toyota to share the costs of developing an all-new smaller city-car platform since neither MINI or BMW make underpinnings small enough to base it on.