New MINI Celebrates 1.5 Millionth Vehicle
The MINI brand continues to be a huge success for BMW and just yesterday the sporty small car maker celebrated its 1.5 millionth vehicle. The car is a Chili red Clubman built for the U.K. market.
The milestone comes at an important time for MINI as this year it is celebrating 50 years as an automaker. The 1.5 million new MINI models have all been built at the company’s plant in Oxford since 2001. The new MINI still has a long way to go, however, to catch up with the original, which sold 5.3 million units between 1959 and 2000.
In total MINI has built 6.8 million cars. And when it comes to the new MINI, the standard hard top is the people’s choice, accounting for 1.24 million of the 1.5 million sold.
“This is a great day for the plant and a wonderful milestone to reach in the 50th birthday year of MINI,” said BMW Sales and Marketing boss Ian Robertson. “This is a tough time for the car industry and no business is immune from its challenges, but MINI is an extremely resilient brand with huge customer appeal and we have seen a strengthening order bank in recent months. We will launch a wealth of new models in the coming years and the future is looking extremely bright.”
MINI hasn’t said much officially, but the future product lineup is expected to include a crossover model and possibly a speedster. As a brand, MINI has also expanded its global reach and is now sold in 80 countries.
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
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