Sebastian Mackensen, global head of MINI, has said that the next volume model, due in late 2019, will be electric. He made the revelation at the New York Auto Show held recently and he said he hoped that it would be a car that people would buy.

MINI, along with many small cars, are facing difficulties with the surge in demand for sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossovers. Its US sales dropped from 66,500 cars in 2013 to 52,000 last year. The company hopes the electric model will regain some of the lost sales. There has been speculation that there would be more than one electric MINI model and that the MINI hatch would be the first to go electric. BMW has previously said it would have five electric vehicles by 2020 including one MINI and one X3. In addition to the i8 going electric in 2018, the company will introduce the iNEXT electric vehicle from 2021.

Source: Arab News