Why Mini's Oxford plant is turning its back on EVs – for now

If car factories aren't switching from making ICE cars to making electric cars, they’re living a charmed life. Of the five major car makers building vehicles in Britain, four have now confirmed plans or are already building EVs in the UK: JLR, Nissan, Stellantis and now Mini. Only Toyota is yet to reveal its hand – a situation that's understood to be related to what concession the UK government will allow for hybrids to stay on sale from 2030 to 2035 before the full switch to EVs in 2035. The future of UK car manufacturing in the electric era has long felt uncertain, but with each passing announcement, positivity grows that the car-building industry can not only survive but thrive. The Mini announcement is hugely significant. However, Oxford's path to going fully electric is an unusual one. Oxford will actually stop making EVs from early next year in the Mini Cooper’s next generation and once again focus solely on making petrol cars. In the current line-up, electric versions of the hatchback are built alongside the petrol ones. In the fourth-generation hatch, unveiled at the Munich motor show last week, from Oxford will come petrol versions and from China will come electric versions. The two will look identical but be different underneath, the Oxford model using underpinnings heavily updated from the current model and the Chinese model using a new EV platform co-developed with Great Wall Motor. In 2026, the electric Cooper will then go into Oxford alongside a new electric crossover called the Aceman. So why the two year gap of no EVs for Oxford? An electric version wasn’t originally intended to be part of the third-generation BMW Mini in production now. The rapid adoption of EVs since the third iteration’s 2014 launch meant BMW had to – and managed to – retrofit the architecture with the capacity for an EV powertrain in response. It wasn’t just the car that wasn’t fully prepared but also the factory. Oxford can only build every second car as an EV, which Mini boss Stefanie Wurst said last year makes it “not geared up for mass production”. With a ready-made replacement for the current Mini EV available from China, the decision was taken for Oxford’s full return to petrol cars – for now. In 2026, all that will change, securing Oxford's future in the process.

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Why Mini's Oxford plant is turning its back on EVs – for now

Production of electric Mini models will move entirely to China between 2024 and 2026

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