British marque Mini comes out with its spectacular Aceman car concept. It is an evolution of the current design that will underpin the next generation electric Mini hatchback. This will evolve into a new compact electric crossover by the end of 2024 and is destined to look very similar to what we have in front of our eyes today in the form of this car concept.
Mini Aceman: A new design language
The design team really seems to have done a splendid job in coming up with one great design language that many brands would get inspired from for their future EVs. The car carries a certain level of funkiness that one cannot miss and it might open up a new chapter of how future EV cars look.
In 2019, BMW and Great Wall signed up for a 50/50 joint venture to produce Mini EVs in China. Since then, what the two brands have been jointly developing is the all-new Spotlight architecture. A stretched version of this is seen being used in the car concept. When the car hits production, it would position itself between the Mini hatchback and the Countryman SUV. The Aceman resembles Mini Countryman but is a shorter version. It is longer than Mini Cooper.
Mini Aceman: exterior highlights
The car has an athletic look with a high shoulder line. Walking in the footsteps of Hyundai and Cadillac, the Aceman comes loaded with LEDs to illuminate the grille in many patterns. The Aceman retains some classic Mini design features. These include the classic headlights and taillights though this time they carry a more angular cut. Also retained are the short front and rear overhangs.
When viewed from the side, the car has a muscular side profile with heave cladding on the wheel arches and the door. Shifting away from the chrome door handles seen on previous Mini production models, the Aceman sports flush door handles. Mini claims that the shoulder line, tailgate spoiler, and glasshouse design are all done keeping into consideration the aerodynamics of the car. What is seen in the car concept and might as well sustain itself when the car goes into production is the glazed roof with no strengthening bars. It gives a proper view of the roof rack that in many ways looks like the Union Jack flag. However, the roof rack is not the only place where the Union Jack theme is evident in the car. It is seen on the wheel-arch moldings and the rear light clusters.
Mini Aceman: an equally marvellous interior
The view inside the car is no less spectacular. At the front, the owner looks through a much shallower windscreen, and before it on the dashboard looks at a revolutionary circular OLED central screen. It runs on a new operating system. Built on Android Open Source Project, it is simple, intuitive, and configurable in many respects. Aceman also carries a toggle bar below, which Mini claims, has five controls, exactly like in the original 1959 version. As the car is based on the revolutionary new EV platform, it buys more real estate inside compared to the five-door hatchback and the Clubman. More space has been created by reducing the dashboard volume and the bulk of the steering wheel.
Currently, with not many details revealed by Mini, all we know about is that this next-generation Mini EV hatchback will come with a 183hp Cooper and a roughly 40kWh battery, and a 224hp Cooper S with a 50kWh pack. This would offer the car a range of 402 km.
It would not be so wrong to consider Aceman as a direct replacement for the Mini Clubman, which is destined to be phased out in mid-2023. With Aceman, Mini would look to target first-time Mini buyers.
