The Mini brand today showed off its vision for the electric future with the Concept Aceman, a new crossover that will fit between the Mini Cooper and the Mini Countryman in size. With bold design and new tech, the Mini Concept Aceman advances the brand’s look without giving up on what makes it special.
The design team describes the thesis
behind the Mini Concept Aceman’s design as “Charismatic Simplicity.” That means
that it has a simple two-box shape, with the added charisma of sharply carved
edges and athletic shoulders. At 4.05 meters long, 1.99
meters wide, and 1.59 meters tall, it’s just an inch and a 4
cm longer than a Mini Cooper four door and an inch and a half taller than a
Mini Countryman and rides on 20-inch wheels.
Its grille doesn’t do much
cooling but will do some lighting, because its octagonal perimeter is
illuminated and a light array inside of it can display different designs. The
headlights, meanwhile, are no longer round, but the taillights do still feature
the Union Jack motif that has for so long defined the brand. The exterior of
the concept features no chrome to make it as green as possible. Visual intrigue
comes instead from the British Racing Green roof section, which contrasts
against the Icy Sunglow Green body color. The lower edge of the body is also
finished in dark green while accents are painted blue and pink-orange, to
highlight the vehicle’s bright, charismatic character.
Mini has attempted
to be green inside and has decided not to use any leather. Instead, it uses a
combination of sustainable textiles, like velvet velour, waffle weave, an
exaggerated houndstooth, and more, to give the interior textural depth and
visual appeal.
The marquee tech feature for the new Mini
Concept Aceman is the round OLED screen. In a first for the brand, it will be
based on the latest-generation MINI operating system, which is built on the
Android Open Source Project software stack. The dashboard around the screen,
meanwhile, is flat and is intended to look like a soundbar. That’s both
aesthetic and functional, because the center screen’s display can be extended
to be projected on the entire surface. The user interface, finally, has been
designed to take advantage of this capacity and to be customizable.
A production version of the Mini Concept
Aceman is expected to hit the streets. Before that happens, though, the concept
will make its live debut at Gamescon 2022 in Cologne, Germany. It will be
displayed at the esports convention and presented during a livestream on August
23.