The Traveller will be larger than the Countryman, as seen in our rendering, but is expected to share its underpinnings with the next-gen BMW i3, according to Autocar.
If there has been a trend with the Mini range since its acquisition and relaunch by BMW, it’s that its models have been getting progressively larger, culminating in the Mini Countryman SUV. That trend is about to change in a curious way: Mini will make some models smaller, while also bringing back another name from its past: the Traveller.
Autocar reports that the next Mini Cooper, replacing a model that has been on the market since 2014, will actually be smaller this time around, distancing itself a bit from the four-door Mini Cooper and the Clubman, which are quite similar in size. Mini boss Bernd Körber told Autocar that he’d “love to see the core Mini shrink again,” signaling a return to a smaller footprint for the 2022 model, amid an acknowledgement within the company that the current Mini Cooper has become too large on the outside.
“We are having proportion and design discussions at the moment,” Körber told Autocar. “The task now is to design it. In three to four years, I’d like to see the start of the next generation.”
Indeed, the base two-door model had grown with each generation since the brand’s relaunch, culminating in the addition of a four-door model in 2014 that was actually larger than an earlier Clubman model. The Clubman has since regained its size and gained two doors, becoming roughly equal to the current four-door, while Mini has cut the Paceman from the lineup amid a reorganization of its priorities to five core models.
The next-gen two-door base model, due in 2022, will be available in gasoline and electric form, Autocar notes, confirming that the current Mini Cooper SE electric is more of placeholder since it won’t have that much time on the shelf before the 2022 Mini Cooper arrives.
While the base model will get smaller, the other end of the spectrum will grow with the addition of a model even larger than the Countryman. Autocar reports that the Traveller name will be resurrected, and this model will be paired with the next-gen BMW i3. (Just let this bit of news wash over you for a couple of minutes).
Of course, it probably won’t look too much like the next-gen BMW i3 — we still don’t know at this point in what direction that model is headed — but the range-extended nature of the i3 may make sense for a larger Mini offering. The difference in positioning between the Countryman and the Traveller will be that the Traveller will not be off-road oriented, but rather focused on interior space and efficiency.
This approach makes sense within the Mini lineup, even though there will be some who will roll their eyes at the thought of yet another larger Mini. But it probably won’t be offered with wood siding, unlike the original Traveller.
“The Countryman is a very small SUV,” Körber told Autocar. “In the U.S. and China, there are certain needs. We will look at a compact SUV in the next generation. There are lots of benefits with a car like that for urban use. For me, it’s a good match.”
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