Why there will be no EV version of the 2025 Mini Cooper five-door, and how the Aceman electric SUV could become the brand's global top-seller

Despite its strong pivot to battery electric vehicles, Mini will not offer an EV version of its next-generation Cooper five-door hatchback when it launches later this year - but, there is a good reason for that.

While the already revealed three-door Cooper hatch is offered in 'C' and 'S' petrol, as well as 'E' and 'SE' electric grades, the soon-to-be-revealed five-door Cooper is only going to come in C and S guise.

And it's all because of the existence of the forthcoming Aceman SUV.

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The Aceman is an electric-only five-door crossover and according to Head of Mini Product Christopher Wehner, it will fill that gap in Mini's line-up, as well as playing a few different roles.

"You can see in our portfolio, the mini Aceman plays a little bit of two roles. And the one role is we do not have an electric five-door Mini Cooper. But for these customers who want five-door electric, we have new Mini Aceman. So that was one reason for the Aceman," he said at the Countryman launch in Portugal recently.

"The other one was there was enough space in terms of dimensions between the Mini Cooper and Countryman. The third reason was, of course, maybe we will see some customers who say, 'Okay, now the Countryman is too big for me, I want more of this city SUV', and also the Mini Aceman is a perfect choice."

The outgoing Mini Cooper SE EV was the brand’s top-selling model globally in 2023, outselling all other models and grades.

The new-generation Countryman, that just had its global launch, is available in petrol and all-electric guise as well, giving Mini buyers three EV offerings of differing sizes and styles.

One powertrain option we won't see moving forward is plug-in hybrid. Mini reckons its buyers are keen on petrol or electric - not a combination. That means the previous-gen Countryman PHEV will be the last of its kind.

Proving the power of Mini's electric offerings, the outgoing Mini Cooper SE EV was the brand's top-selling model globally in 2023, outselling all other models and grades.

The soon-to-be-revealed five-door Cooper is only going to come in C and S guise.

With the forthcoming Aceman - which is yet to be officially revealed in production guise - playing in the hot-selling SUV segment, and being an EV-only offering, could this model overtake the Cooper as Mini's global best-seller when it eventually rolls out in 2025?

"It could, yes it will be a head-on-head race. Currently what we think, numbers are similar. So let's see who will win the race. But I'm absolutely convinced that the Aceman will be one of our top-sellers, definitely," Wehner said.

The Aceman will be exclusively produced in China in partnership with Chinese giant GWM. However, Wehner said Mini buyers are not concerned about the origins of their cars, so it doesn't matter if it is made in Oxford, UK, or China.

As well as the five-door Cooper, that other model in Mini’s new family we are yet to see is the next-gen Convertible.

"We did market research whether your production plant matters in terms of perception. So in principle, production plant doesn't matter. As long as your produced product keeps the quality promise and everything like that. Customers do not do not think about production sites," Wehner said.

As well as the five-door Cooper, that other model in Mini's new family we are yet to see is the next-gen Convertible. This will be built on the carryover ICE platform that underpins the new Cooper three-door hatch, but when asked if we could see another electric drop-top like the limited-run model launched a year ago, Wehner said it was unlikely for now, but added:

"In principle we can do a lot. As you have seen we just made this limited number of electric Convertible … which we sold in Europe, limited number of 999 units. And I think this shows we are capable to do a lot of things."

The Aceman will be exclusively produced in China in partnership with Chinese giant GWM.

Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen, but Mini is proud of the fact that it was the first carmaker in the world to launch and sell an electric convertible.

Further to that, the Mini Convertible is the world's best-selling drop-top, outselling the likes of the Mazda MX-5 and For Mustang.