Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Auto

A huge week for electric cars: MINI Countryman electric makes its North America debut

Big things come in MINI packages

Lou Ruggieri
By
Mini Cooper Countryman Electric
MINI USA

When discussing the MINI car brand, it is often difficult to resist the urge to immediately gravitate to such paradoxical descriptions to describe just how big MINI is to grab your attention. And while we are confident you will come across plenty of that wordplay around the internet this week, we will try to avoid the more obvious puns surrounding BMW’s fun subsidiary.

That said, and out of the way, the newest MINI is a significant event when it comes to electric cars. As more and more of the world’s auto manufacturers turn to electric for their primary power source, when a company like MINI jumps into the fray, it is almost impossible not to get a little excited about it.

Recommended Videos

MINI OLED Display

Electric cars are the future: MINI aims to be fully electric by 2030

Following up on its recent introduction of an all-new digitized interior, MINI  made another splash with a not-so-coincidental decision to debut its first fully electric North American car during Climate Week NYC, and MINI brings us the Countryman Electric. “The all-new MINI Countryman Electric is a significant step as MINI moves to becoming a more sustainable and fully electrified brand by 2030,” said Mike Peyton, President of MINI Business Innovations, LLC, and Vice President of MINI of the Americas.

Related

The new Countryman Electric features that same futuristically cool “digital ecosystem” inside while retaining its signature look on the outside. MINI promises to keep the brand’s “fun to drive” ideology with this EV. BMW also introduced its new CE-C4 electric scooter and innovative iX5 Hydrogen prototype to hint at things to come.

Mini Cooper Countryman Electric
MINI USA

The Countryman Electric’s first appearance was underscored by a special panel called Driving Forward: The Transforming of Future Mobility hosted by MINI’s urban technology platform named URBAN-X. Founded to make cities more sustainable, livable, and resilient, URBAN-X is actively interested in anything that can nurture those principles, especially when it’s one of their own. President Peyton added, “Sustainability is also a key mission of URBAN-X, our start-up accelerator focused on climate tech innovations that help make city life better. That’s why it’s a perfect fit to showcase our next new electric MINI at URBAN-X on the occasion of Climate Week NYC.”

Set to hit showrooms as a 2025 EV model in the fall of 2024, the Countryman Electric tells us a lot, even without telling us that much. With the goal of becoming totally electric in less than a decade, we can be sure that parent company BMW will be heavily invested in all pertinent research involving battery-powered cars, as well as any ways to help customers avert the ever-present and always looming range anxiety plaguing the world of Teslas, Lucids, and PHEVs everywhere.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lou Ruggieri
Lou Ruggieri
Writer
A lifelong lover of cars, Lou contributes to Motor Trend, Hot Cars, Auto & Truck Connection, and the PowerAutoMedia Group.
BMW opens its EVs to Tesla charging network
Finally, fast charging without having to own a Tesla
BMW i7 M70 xDrive

BMW is the latest auto manufacturer to announce it is adopting Tesla’s charging standard. Several other major automakers have confirmed they will be offering North American Charging Standard (NACS) compatible cars in the coming years. The current list includes Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, and Nissan.

The deal between BMW and Tesla means that the company’s EVs, along with those of fellow BMW Group members MINI and Rolls-Royce, will be able to use Tesla’s extensive supercharging network from 2025 onwards. As part of the deal, the German automaker’s EVs will feature an NACS charging port from that date.

Read more
What you need to know about the electric vehicle tax credit
The new EV tax credit program can be a bit challenging to navigate, so we're breaking it down for you
Ford F-150 Lightning at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in a factory with bright lights in the back.

The federal electric vehicle tax credit used to be pretty straightforward. Want an electric car? All you had to do was buy one from an automaker that sold fewer than 200,000 electrified vehicles. Depending on the battery size, vehicles were eligible for up to $7,500. Then the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became a thing and made things far more confusing. It introduced a lot of requirements for electric vehicles and buyers to be eligible for the electric vehicle tax credit in 2023. While the thinking behind the IRA was to push buyers to purchase an American-built EV, it’s made things extremely confusing for anyone looking to purchase a car.
The IRA was signed into law in August 2022, making 2023 the first year when buyers will really have to sort through all of its confusing language to see how much of a tax break they get can for purchasing an EV. The government isn’t making things easier on buyers, though, as it's made some fresh changes to the IRA that make things even more perplexing. If you’re looking to purchase an EV, here’s your guide on how to navigate the available federal electric vehicle tax credit for EVs in 2023.

What the IRA changed
As of January 1, 2023, electric vehicles needed to meet a few of the IRA’s requirements to be eligible for any portion of the available federal tax credit. The following guidelines must be met in order for a buyer to get a tax break from the government for purchasing an electric vehicle:

Read more
GM makes game-changing investment in EV batteries to make electric cars more affordable
AI could lead to cheaper EVs
GM worker testing batteries in Warren Michigan plant

While the technology behind EVs has advanced rapidly in recent years, there are still a few barriers stopping everyone from going electric. One major issue is cost; an EV is often significantly more expensive than its gas-fueled counterpart. A lot of this cost is down to the vehicle’s battery pack. The fact these batteries will degrade and may require an expensive replacement several years down the line is another factor turning people off EVs.

But this may soon change. GM is investing $60 million into a company that is working to make EV batteries significantly cheaper. The automotive giant is partnering with Mitra Chem in an attempt to shift batteries with “advanced iron-based cathode active materials” from the lab to the production lines. The money will be used to scale up Mitra Chem’s operations and reduce the time it takes to produce the new battery tech. Mitra Chem also uses AI to help “simulate, synthesize and test thousands of cathode designs monthly,” in its research and development facility.

Read more