2025 MINI Countryman

CLINT SIMONE: After quite some time, MINI is ready to take a huge step into the future with its next generation of vehicles. Today, I'm here with the all new MINI Cooper and MINI Countryman. And I think you're about to be quite surprised by what you're going to see. So let's dive in together. As of now, MINI is only talking about the two door electric Cooper, which is not confirmed for the US market yet. That said, we shouldn't be surprised to see it come to our shores. Looking at European testing data, we can estimate that the Cooper EV will be good for about 220 miles, which is a nice improvement over the current model. The EV will offer a 40.7, or a 54.2, kw/hour battery pack and up to 218 horsepower. As for future models, a gas powered Cooper two door, four door, and John Cooper Works version are all on the table. We'll have to wait for MINI to confirm all of that officially, hopefully before the end of the year. But beyond that, MINI has totally taken a new approach with this car. And more than ever before, they're just trying to make it fun. This is a new city runabout for a younger generation of buyers. And it is just bursting with personality, which brings me to my favorite detail. So we're here at the back of the new Cooper, and we're used to seeing the Union Jack signature in their tail lights. But this generation takes it completely to a whole new level. Obviously, the shape of the tail light is different. It's a lot more angular and just modern looking across the board. But because this is a full LED tail light, you can actually change the lighting signature. I've never seen that in a production car in the US before. This is the default look, but you can just have the horizontal lines here, you can have arrows-- you can customize the way your tail lights look from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, if you want to. Welcome to the inside of the new Cooper, where things are very different than they've ever been before, but still familiar. This is a MINI. There's no mistaking it. And they've taken this theme that they've run with for decades now and kept it circular and in the middle of the dash. But this time around, it is a lot more modern. This is a brand new OLED display that's going to be part of every new car in the MINI family. And with it is a full new technology suite. And here, we have my new friend Spike. Now, that is one of the avatars you can use for MINI's new virtual assistant. So Spike, when you say, "hey, MINI," will be able to help you with a whole bunch of things. It's a little British dog. How cute is that? And if you don't want the dog, there's a car icon that can help you as well. This is just one example where MINI's really let their hair down a bit and had a lot of fun with this infotainment. More than any other car I've seen, they are focusing on individual driver personality, rather than just technology. You can see that they're big into it, because this switch here is for the experience. So you have eight different experiences right now that alter the character of the car all done through technology. If you to have your maps big in the screen, you can have the whole screen orient just for that. If you like your Spotify and you're all about music, Spotify will take up the entire screen. They even went as far as to integrate a specific background for the Apple CarPlay display to make it fit with the circular motif here. Overall, it's really impressive. And I think it's going to go a long way in keeping MINIs modern down the road. And while I'm in here, we have to talk about this new interior. Now, not only is it much more fun and vibrant, there's all these different shapes and different textures, but colors as well. I feel like in BMWs and MINI products, we're just used to the sea of black and gray. And when you're sitting inside such a small car, that makes a big difference. This feels a lot more airy, a lot more chipper as you're driving along. I love what they've done with this and how playful they've been with the material choices. This right here is also all recyclable materials, and elements of the door panels are as well. And now, let's take a look at the new Countryman. This is a car with a size that's a bit more appropriate for the American market. And speaking of that, they've made it bigger in just about every meaningful dimension. This is now a true compact crossover, but one that's a lot more usable for a family. There's a lot more interior space, especially in the second row and the cargo area. That is all going to make a huge difference with this new Countryman. And just like the new Cooper, the Countryman will be offered in gas and electric powertrain. This one right here is the electric version, but will first debut with a gas engine when it goes on sale next year in the US. MINI is not sharing details on the gas powered Countryman just yet, but we know that the EV will come in two variants-- E and SE All Four. The base model will have 204 horsepower and front wheel drive, while the SE will have all wheel drive and 313 horsepower. Estimated range is up to 287 miles. However, that number will most likely be less in the US. Now, they've really given this car quite the dramatic design overhaul, and I think it's done a lot of good for the Countryman. One thing I want to point out-- the wheels are actually made of mostly recyclable aluminum. So just like we talked about in the Cooper, there's a new emphasis on sustainability and using recyclable materials. The interior is all about that as well. But in addition to that, there's a much more streamlined roof. But the roof doesn't taper down so the headroom actually stays quite good. And then right here, we have All Four panel, indicating that this does have all wheel drive and two electric motors. Here inside of the new Countryman, just like the Cooper, the colors and the patterns are insane. I'm sure they'll offer different versions that are a little bit more muted. Looks like we have the Denver Broncos package in here with the blue, it kind of goes into this orange right after that. But it just shows how much fun they had designing this interior. I love that. We get the same technology package as we do in the new Cooper, same size OLED display, and I have a head-up display in front of me as well for all the other driver assistance information. Beyond that, the room is actually quite decent. Not only is the seat pretty comfortable, but the headroom is fantastic, even for somebody who is not tall like myself. I think where it really is going to matter, though, is here in the second row. Because they've given this car a longer wheelbase and just added dimension to it overall, legroom is great. The chair in front of me is actually pushed quite back right now, and the headroom is still fantastic because the roofline is so flat. This is going to work for a family despite still being a MINI. So you might be wondering when all of this new MINI awesomeness is coming your way. The first one is going to be the gas powered Countryman. That is the first half of next year. In the second half of next year, we'll have the electric Countryman and different versions of the Cooper. And for all that information, of course, you can head over to edmunds.com. Thanks for watching.