Electric Mini.

[JockoT]

BMW have today announced that the will build a fully electric Mini at their Cowley plant, in Oxford, here in the UK. Production will begin in 2019.

BMW says the economic case for building the electric mini in Oxford is compelling, and it's easy to see why.
This is not a brand new car, redesigned from the ground up. It's a Mini, a 3-door hatchback, which will in many ways be identical to the cars already being built at the Cowley plant.
The drivetrain, which includes the motor, gearbox and battery pack - will be assembled in Germany, and fixed to the rest of the car in the factory.

[NeilBlanchard]

Will it have a backseat?

[JockoT]

[freebeard]

EV-converting an existing platform is why the legacy manufacturers will never catch Tesla.

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by freebeard

EV-converting an existing platform is why the legacy manufacturers will never catch Tesla.

Its cheaper, but obviously you guve up some optimization. Which also means it will be an inferior product.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

Its cheaper, but obviously you guve up some optimization. Which also means it will be an inferior product.

I might have to disagree on that, using a platform from an ICE-powered car may not lead an EV to become "inferior".

[NeilBlanchard]

BMW is apparently going to be building a Mini-e in the near future.

[freebeard]

I might have to disagree on that, using a platform from an ICE-powered car may not lead an EV to become "inferior".

Not a strong disagreement then?

There are significant architectural differences to be reconciled.

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

I might have to disagree on that, using a platform from an ICE-powered car may not lead an EV to become "inferior".

Yes, and getting shot in the head may not kill a person.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

Yes, and getting shot in the head may not kill a person.

There were some people who survived after getting shot in the head, but that's a different matter anyway. But when it comes to repurposing a conventional platform into an EV, there are many aspects that should be taken in consideration. Sure a dedicated platform could address issues such as the center of gravity and weight bias, but it's still not impossible to get good results with a setup based on an off-the-shelf platform. There are also people who look at an EV due to tax incentives, but don't want all the attention that an unconventionally-designed car would get. But anyway, if I were going to convert a conventional car to electric I'd be mostly inclined to make it RWD. The compactness of either a rear motor assembly similar to the one fitted to the rear axle of Toyota and Lexus hybrid crossover SUVs seems to be easily adaptable to most applications and quite space-saving, leading to more freedom to either arrange the battery packs in a way that would become less harmful for the handling or to clear enough to allow an extra luggage compartment. So, since an EV built around an already-existing platform can be as functional as one built into a dedicated-EV platform, it would not be "inferior" at all.