MINI won’t go bigger than Countryman

The new MINI family might be larger model-for-model than the outgoing range, but it won’t include anything bigger than the Countryman, according to chief designer Anders Warming. There had been rumours of a seven-seater MINI MPV in the product plan, but not anymore. “We won’t build anything bigger than the Countryman, not at this moment,” Warming told us. “You should be able to park a MINI in a city, so a Countryman or this new Clubman is as big as it should be.”

• Geneva Motor Show 2014: live  

Warming was keen to point out that the Clubman has grown significantly over the “Polo-sized” outgoing car and was now in the “Golf segment.” The Clubman concept, revealed at the Geneva show is in fact 260mm longer and 187mm wider than its predecessor, and wider and longer (with a longer wheelbase) than the new hatch too, thanks to the flexible new UKL1 platform shared with BMW. MINI is entering into a phase of “focusing more on the individual characters of the cars, so whether there’s five, six or seven different models, each will tell it’s own story,” according to Warming. At the other end of the range, the MINI Rocketman concept is still a hot topic of debate and has yet to be ruled out. “At this point we’re still investigating it, it’s still an emotional topic for us,” Warming revealed. “We’re happy with the reception the Rocketman got but we still have to make ends meet on that one – it’s a numbers game. We’ll have to get back to you on that one.”