Mini Officially Removes Manual Transmission for Future Models

Mini JCW Badminton Racing Edition. (Doc. BMW Group)

JAKARTA - Mini has released the latest Cooper which is powered by electricity. Despite the different propulsion, the car is very identical to its petrol-engined predecessor Mini model.

Mini Cooper is known as a manufacturer that is able to provide vehicles with fun characteristics to drive. And this characteristic is maintained by Mini in its EV version and several new models in the future. However, not all the characteristics of the Mini can be maintained.

Confirmed by Stefanie Wurst, Boss of Mini, said the manufacturer will not provide a manual transmission for some Mini models in the future. Of course, this is bad news for some fans of the British manufacturer.

"Unfortunately, we do not provide a manual transmission," said Wurst quoted from Top Gear, Tuesday, September 5.

It is known, the identity of the Mini is also formed thanks to the satisfactory performance of the manual transmission. As a result, the Mini John Cooper Works (JCW) 1to6 Edition became one of the last Mini models to adopt a manual transmission. The car is based on the previous generation of hot hatches in celebration of the JCW gearbox's successful entry into this year's Nurburgring 24 Hours race.

Even though the manual transmission has been killed off, Stefanie Wurst guarantees that the passion that has been attached to the Mini for a long time, namely performance, will not be lost in time.

"Performance can still help Mini car sales," said Wurst.

Mini has also introduced a JCW Bulldog Racing Edition model as the manufacturer's farewell to the manual transmission. The hot hatch has a 2.0 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with 231 hp and 318 Nm of torque.

Next, Mini will begin to shift its focus to electrification. The Mini Cooper EV was introduced a few days ago with E and SE trims available.

Version E has an electric motor with a power of 181 hp with 290 Nm of torque which can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.3 seconds. Meanwhile, the SE variant has great power with 214 hp and 330 Nm of torque where this car can run from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds.

The Mini Cooper E supports enough battery to make the car go up to 305 km on a single charge and can be compatible with a 75 kW DC fast charging system. Meanwhile, the SE type has a larger battery with 54.2 kWh which has a range of up to 402 km on a single charge and can be charged with a 95 kW DC fast charger system.