The Mini is one of the greatest classic cars of all time and now owners of original models are being given the opportunity to replace their petrol engine with an electric motor to give their cars an even longer life.
The project is being run by a specialist unit at Mini's HQ in Oxford, which first produced a prototype of the electrified classic in 2018. Now the conversion is to be offered commercially, although at what cost we don't know yet. Owners of classic Mini's will be offered the service in Oxford, where the team will replace the original petrol engine with a 90kW battery that Mini says should be able to deliver a range of about 160 km.
The car will have a 0 to 100 km acceleration time of 9 seconds and will produce zero emissions. Converting the original car certainly won't be cheap but the process is expected to allow classic owners to greatly extend the life of their cars. When the conventional engine is removed, it will be stored by BMW in the UK in case the owner seeks to retrofit it at any point in the future.
The original Mini was designed in the 1950's by Sir Alec Issigonis, who was given the challenge of designing a car that could take four people and their luggage in a car with the smallest possible footprint. He managed to do it and his legacy lives on to this day.
