Mini has dropped a handful of official images showing the all-new 2025 Cooper S EV hatch from multiple angles, almost 18 months after we first spied it completely undisguised in China.
The pictures show that BMW’s smallest car has adopted a smarter, more modern, and tech-influenced style, and moved further away from its retro roots for its fourth incarnation under the German automaker’s ownership.
It’s still clearly a Mini and has an instantly recognizable face comprising of a gaping mouth and two cartoon-like eyes, but that face is more angular this time. The large octagonal grille borrows from the Urbanaut minivan concept, the hood gains a pair of pronounced creases that break with Mini’s curvy tradition, and the horizontal DRL eyelids almost look like narrowed eyes, giving the car a meaner stare.
The new Mini’s hood is smaller and no longer envelops the headlights, while the doors gain stylish flush-fit exterior handles and there’s a pronounced flare to the rear fenders, but no black plastic cladding, giving the car a muscular, but premium, stance. Naturally, the trademark two-tone Cooper paint scheme with a contrasting white roof is still present, but the rear view shows off some major changes to the design, including the addition of a set of triangular LED light units.
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But there are even bigger changes in store for Mini buyers under the skin, and we’re not talking about the large new digital touchscreen mounted atop a cleaned-up dashboard. The new Mini hatch, which is expected to launch in the U.S. as a 2025 model-year car, will essentially be two distinct models. One is a pure EV that will be built in China, and another is an updated version of the current UK-built ICE car that gets a facelift to bring it into line with its new battery-powered brother.
The electric Cooper is reported to get a 40 kWh battery for a WLTP range of around 200 miles (322 km), which compares favorably with the 150 miles offered by today’s electric Mini hatch, while the Cooper S EV shown in these pictures gets a 54 kWh battery that edges the range north towards 250 miles (402 km). The exact power and performance figures for the two models are still under wraps. The good news for Mini fans not ready to make the switch to electric power is that the current 1.5-liter Cooper and 2.0-liter Cooper S engines should live on in the new lineup.
