Minimalist new Mini dashboard revealed - takes inspiration from 1959 original
Your "digital partner in crime"...
More details have been revealed about the new Mini Cooper Electric, with the British firm teasing the minimalist interior of the new model, due to be revealed in full later this year.
The new Mini takes a leaf out of the original 1959 Mini’s book by having a dashboard that’s stripped of switches and buttons. The classic model only had three elements to its dashboard design – a steering wheel, a round central instrument cluster and a toggle bar mounted beneath it – and this has been applied to the new car. According to Mini, “these three elements describe the new design until today and get even more attention to bring the original Mini identity to life”.
To show the similarities between the two models, Mini has released a video of the old car’s cabin ‘morphing’ into the new one. It clearly shows the likeness, although the new car features a larger central display, while it looks like there’s a smaller steering wheel in comparison with the old Mini. However, this is more of an illusion, because the new Cooper Electric will be a far larger car than the original Mini.
New car gets all the mod-cons as well
Other differences include the addition of two door mirrors, a pair of sun visors, a central armrest and a three-spoke steering wheel instead of a two-spoke item. In the new car, this is equipped with multifunction controls and has a pair of column stalks behind it. The doors themselves feature a lot more functions. While the old car just had narrow storage bins, the new one adds armrests, plus the usual window switches, electric mirror adjusters and interior door handles. In addition, not only does the new car in the video feature a sunroof, but there are also controls for the Cooper Electric’s E-Call emergency contact system set into the overhead console.
While the dashboard of the new Mini Cooper Electric has a similar look to the classic model’s, the central display will feature far more functionality. All of the car’s controls will be operated through it, and Mini has also revealed the ‘Welcome Scenario’ start-up animation that activates when the doors are opened.
The show starts with Mini’s winged logo, then a series of circles expand and move around the screen before the display finally appears. On the video of the new animation, the circular screen features a navigation map in the middle, with climate controls in the lower corner and a row of shortcuts across the bottom of the display. According to Mini, the new dashboard offers “an immersive experience that includes light, sounds, animations and projections – creating a very strong emotional statement and making the Mini your ‘digital partner in crime’.”
Full reveal later this year ahead of 2024 sales
Elsewhere, LED ambient lighting illuminates the cabin, including ahead of the driver where the knitted dashboard provides space for light projections as part of the new Mini Experience Modes. Finally, the fourth element of the cockpit, the driver’s head-up display, shows vital information so that the driver doesn’t need to take their eyes off the road.
We’ll get more information about the Mini Cooper Electric when it’s revealed later in the year at the Munich motor show in the first week of September before arriving in the UK in early 2024.
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