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 7.9 inches (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.
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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 (174 PS) electric motor, giving a combined output of 318 hp (322 PS) and a potential electric driving range of 55 miles (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.
