Spy photographers spend their lives skulking in bushes and taking pictures of still-secret cars like the 2024 Mini Countryman Cooper S. But on this occasion, the angry driver of the Cooper S gave our man a taste of his own medicine and started taking pictures of him with his smartphone. We’re not sure if Stefan is rocking a facelift for 2024 because even we don’t know what he looks like. But we do know that the next generation Countryman is going to grow significantly in size to liberate more interior space for passengers. And it looks like the hot Cooper S version has grown a set of quad tailpipes judging by the exhaust tips poking out from under this prototype’s bumper.
The next Countryman shares its FAAR
platform with the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer sold in Europe and will be built
in the same Leipzig, Germany, plant as that model and the next BMW X1
crossover, which also rolls on the same architecture. According to intel from
Autocar, the third-generation Countryman could grow by 200 mm in
length versus today’s model, moving it into a battle with bigger vehicles like
the Nissan Qashqai.
Mini is claimed to be planning a
Chinese-built sister crossover to the Countryman that will be a pure EV, which
means the Countryman itself will be restricted to ICE, mild-hybrid, and PHEV
powertrains. Most cars will be front-wheel drive with a 1.5-liter
three-cylinder gas motor kicking off the range, as it does today. Other options
are rumored to include 2.0-liter gasoline and diesel-fuelled four-cylinder
engines, and a pair of plug-in hybrids, including an all-wheel-drive version
powered by a combination of the 1.5-liter triple and a 172 hp electric
motor, giving a combined output of 318 hp and a potential electric
driving range of 89 km.
How Mini will badge such a performance
flagship remain unclear. This prototype’s quad exhausts and mono-bloc brake
calipers suggest it’s a serious performance derivative, at the very least, a
Cooper S. But the lack of hybrid markings legally required on German test cars
suggests it’s a plain ICE-powered model. Inside the cabin, Countryman drivers
will be treated to a large central touchscreen, a small digital instrument
pack, and updated switchgear, which appears to include a fake ignition key
located in the center of the dashboard, where it lived on 1960s Minis. But with
touchscreens, all-wheel drive, an EV mode, and the kind of power even supercars
couldn’t muster in the original Mini’s heyday, that’s about all the new car
will have in common with its namesake.