The Mini Concept Aceman gives us our first glimpse of the British brand’s all-electric future. In addition to a dedicated battery-electric vehicle, the Aceman sees the Mini brand doubling down on cleaner styling and ditching chrome and animal-based products. It’s the first step in its move towards becoming a fully electrified brand. Dubbed Charismatic Simplicity, it focuses on reducing clutter and evolving the iconic Mini look for the electric age.
Mini Concept Aceman: Easily Identified
Despite the focus on clean and uncluttered design, the quirkiness remains. The Mini Concept Aceman remains easily recognizable even though it lacks a traditional grille. Instead, it gets an open space and makes full use of LED lighting to create unique graphics and elements. While it retains the signature Mini headlight design, this interpretation distinguishes itself with little light embedded in the middle. The taillights, on the other hand, feature the Union Jack pattern just like in the current-generation Hardtop, Convertible, Clubman, and Countryman. Mini kept the two-tone theme with a green roof and rack, the latter of which also features the Union Jack pattern.
Things get a little crazy inside thanks to all of the lights and other information being projected into the dash. Additionally, the circular center cluster has been transformed into a massive screen where most infotainment functions live. The multitude of colors, patterns, and textures all highlight the car’s fun-loving character while emphasizing sustainably sourced materials. Three new experience modes provide additional levels of personalization. Personal gives you the most customization options while Pop-Up allows important information like navigation to show up when necessary. Finally, Vivid allows the display to project lights and other types of graphics to adjacent surfaces. However, it only works while stopped or when charging. The car also features puts on a unique welcome greeting whenever you approach it.
A Four-Door Hardtop Replacement?
At 159 inches long, 78.7 inches wide, and 62.5 inches tall, the Mini Concept Aceman is sized similarly to the four-door Hardtop. There’s a good chance it may serve as its replacement especially considering the popularity of subcompact SUVs. However, Mini never disclosed any technical information on its new show car. Based on its size, the Aceman appears to use BMW Group’s new FAAR architecture that recently debuted in the latest X1 and 2 Series Active Tourer. The former offers a fully-electric version dubbed the iX1, confirming the platform’s ability to handle a wide range of electrified applications.
In the case of the production Aceman, expect this mini SUV to offer both single- and dual-motor configurations. The most powerful version, likely dubbed the Cooper S, could get the largest battery–likely the same 66.5-kWh unit (64.7-kWh usable) as in the iX1. That model could also be the most powerful and make the same 308 hp and 364 lb-ft as its German cousin.s
Source: Mini
