The manufacturer of compact city cars MINI plans to completely abandon petrol, diesel and even hybrid engines within the next 10 years and switch all its cars to fully electric powertrains. This information was confirmed by MINI's managing director Peter Schwarzenbauer.
As Schwarzenbauer told Auto Express, the requirements of major European cities for vehicle environmental friendliness are becoming increasingly stringent, so to maintain its market presence, the company has already begun work on reducing emissions. In addition, the company noted a growing interest in electric cars, which also speaks in favor of a full transition to eco-friendly vehicles.
Schwarzenbauer added that the high interest in the first electric MINI came as a surprise to the company.
According to him, the car was received much more warmly than marketers had expected, so electrification is absolutely the right direction for the company's development. "Gradually we will fully electrify the entire MINI lineup — this fits perfectly into our concept, because the first brand that comes to mind when mentioning a city car is MINI." The manufacturer officially presented its first electric car at the end of July. The MINI Cooper SE model is equipped with a 184-horsepower electric motor and a battery with a capacity of 32.6 kilowatt-hours. 
Acceleration to 100 km/h takes 7.3 seconds for the new model, and the range on a single charge reaches 270 kilometers. MINI has been moving toward this for about 10 years — the first experimental electric car appeared back in 2009, the company built several hundred prototypes for testing, but the MINI E never went into production. According to the company's head, the full transition to electricity will happen no earlier than 2030. This is a logical timeframe, especially considering that from 2040, the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be completely banned in the UK. Local authorities have already allocated 255 million pounds to reduce emissions from diesel vehicles, and over the next 20 years they plan to completely abandon non-eco-friendly transport.
