Mini's upcoming Cooper five-door has been spied testing in Germany ahead of going on sale in the UK in the summer of 2024.
These latest pictures of the combustion-engined car show a heavily disguised five-door Cooper, but the design changes over the previous model are simple to see. Highlights include a new front bumper and grill, as well as rear lights.
It looks much like the new electric version of the three-door hatch, now renamed the Mini Cooper, but with a thick B-pillar and traditional door handles rather than the flush ones found on the smaller car.
The future of the Mini five-door
The British brand has just begun a major overhaul of its line-up as it begins to move towards becoming an electric brand. It has just launched a new electric version of the three-door hatch, which will be joined by an identical combustion-engined version.
Mini has previously not confirmed plans to replace the five-door hatch, suggesting that the forthcoming new Mini Aceman compact electric SUV would fill its place in the line-up between the Cooper and the larger new Mini Countryman SUV.
When asked about a potential future expansion to the Mini line-up at the Munich motor show, Wurst said: “We have so much to do with the roll-out of the family we’ve just announced. The Aceman is still missing, the John Cooper Works variations are all to come, we only speak about the three-door but we actually have a five-door coming, and we have a convertible as well.”
The EV and combustion versions of the new Cooper sit on separate platforms dedicated to each powertrain, and those are likely to also be employed for the new five-door. That would allow for go-faster John Cooper Works variants too, with the hot JCW versions of the three-door hatch confirmed to arrive in 2025.
Wurst added that the Mini range wouldn’t dramatically expand in the future – describing plans for a production version of the Mini Urbanaut MPV (below) shown at the 2021 Munich show as “in the freezer”.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Looks to be like another F56 facelift - albeit with changes to the rear end and I guess the interior facia - than we were led to believe. Windscreen angle and door to roof shut line suggests just an update of what I think was the least successful (styling wise) of the BMW MINIs. Very disappointing and in no way an alternative to a Golf, especially the 7.5.
Q. When is a mini not a mini
A. When its the size of a Golf.
With the axing of the Clubman and the Aceman probably a couple of years away a 5 door version of the Cooper hatch was probably essential. It will be interesting to see whether this will continue when the Oxford plant switches to the Chinese electric platform later in this new generation's life. it is difficult to see from the photo but I hope that BMW will have made a better job of integrating the front and rear door shut line with the roof than on the current F56 5 door. It always looked to be awkward and detracted from the soft MINI lines.