The MINI Countryman EV will be proudly “Made In Germany”.
BMW Group has announced that MINI production will move to Germany for the first time starting with the new MINI Countryman EV, set to launch in 2023. BMW Group’s plant in Leipzig will use the Countryman EV as a pilot project for establishing a “green plant”. The site operates a long-term, sustainable strategy for energy generation and consumption.
While it’s probably a good step in terms of environmental conservation, it’s clear that BMW has also begun to cast away the ‘Britishness’ associated with the MINI brand. We wonder if the new “Made In Germany” MINI models will still come with a Union Jack painted on its roof.
The transformation to an all-electric brand by 2030 begins with this model generation. Thanks to space-saving components such as the particularly flat high-voltage battery, the MINI Countryman will offer additional space and even greater comfort in the future.
Expect the first few models to come off the production line in Leipzig at the end of this year. Perhaps other future electric MINI vehicles will also be made there. The high-voltage batteries for the all-electric MINI Countryman will also come from the Leipzig site with capacity for ‘e-component’ production expanding there rapidly. BMW Group has committed to open eight production lines there with investment of 800 million euros and the promise of 1,000 direct employees.
The Leipzig plant is built to be green from the ground up. There are four wind turbines that directly power the site from 190 metres above the ground. These produced 21.9 GWh of electricity when they measured its environmental impact in 2021.
“Our Leipzig vision is the complete decarbonization of production by replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen. At the BMW Group plant in Leipzig, we are the first automotive plant in the world to use a newly developed burner technology in our paint shop that can use green hydrogen instead of natural gas. Hydrogen has already been used in plant logistics since 2013. Today, five hydrogen filling stations provide energy for over 130 fuel cell-powered industrial trucks, the largest fleet in Germany,” emphasizes Plant Director Petra Peterhaensel.
