Mini

UPDATE, 22 April 2021: Local pricing and specifications for the 2021 Mini JCW hatch have been announced – click here to read the full story. 14 April 2021: The 2021 Mini John Cooper Works hatch has been revealed, ahead of its Australian launch in the third quarter of 2021 (July to September inclusive).

UPDATE, 18 March 2021: Mini will become an all-electric car brand by the end of the decade, the company confirmed overnight. The announcement was made at the annual conference held by Mini's parent company, BMW, with chairman Oliver Zipse outlining future plans for the brand. "Mini will be the first BMW Group brand to go fully electric. Mini is perfect for the city – and for e-mobility. We will be releasing the last model with a combustion-engine variant in 2025," Mr Zipse said.

Pricing and specification details for the 2021 Mini Countryman Boardwalk have been announced. Unveiled in December 2020, the Boardwalk special edition adds a range of blue and black styling elements to Mini's small SUV, with the limited-run Countryman model to arrive Down Under with a choice of Cooper and Cooper S powertrains.

The 2021 Mini Countryman Boardwalk special edition has been unveiled – however, an Australian launch remains officially unconfirmed. Limited to just 325 examples in the UK, the Countryman Boardwalk can be differentiated from the Cooper or Cooper S variants on which it's based primarily by its Deep Laguna Blue Metallic paint, initially developed for the Mini Convertible Sidewalk special edition unveiled earlier this year.

The automobile has long been a home away from home, a personal and private space detached from the noise and frustrations of the world around us – and that's the theme Mini is leaning on with its new Urbanaut concept. There's history in the design, though. While the German-owned British brand has worked to develop a concept that make the most of a hands- and attention-free driving future, the result is both predictably van-like – and a subtle nod to the Spiritual Too concept revealed in 1997.