It’s official: Mini won’t be bringing over its new J01 generation of the electric Cooper or the brand new Aceman EV to North America. At least it won’t do so yet. First reported by Mini enthusiast site MotoringFile, Mini confirmed that the brand is holding off on bringing its pair of new electric models to the U.S. for now. Previously, the brand was saying that it was evaluating whether or not the new Cooper and Aceman would come to our shores.
I reached out to Mini to get both more information and confirmation that the models weren’t coming here and received a statement acknowledging that the company had been looking things over. While the prospect of the EV Cooper and Aceman coming to our market isn’t completely gone, it’s still up in the air with no specific timeline of when that could change.
…we previously said that “a decision remains yet to be made regarding US (and Canada) market availability”.
What we’re able to say now is that “a decision has been taken to defer market availability of these models in the US (and Canada) until a later date”. For the million-dollar question when? At this time, we’re not able to confirm a timeline.
The reason for all this could have something to do with the incoming administration. Despite having no clue as to how they actually work, Trump has proposed placing massive tariffs on any foreign made goods that enter the United States. As MotoringFile pointed out, this could be a problem for Mini prices. That’s in addition to other problems, like having to source components from someplace that isn’t China.
Such tariffs could make any imported MINI either prohibitively expensive or lead to major profit losses for BMW.
Even if European tariffs don’t materialize, MINI faces another significant challenge. To avoid US tariffs, even UK-produced cars will need to be made from components sourced outside of China. This means MINI will need to source hundreds of critical components elsewhere, a task that requires extensive time and planning.
If nothing about this changes, customers interested in a smaller electric Mini may just have to wait and see if the automaker changes its mind. Until then, the Countryman EV is already at dealers in the U.S. alongside the gas-powered version.