BMW Ponders Making Mini an All-Electric Brand in U.S.

BMW AG, which plans to introduce a battery-powered version of its Mini small car in 2019, may eventually offer the brand in the U.S. as 100% electric, Bloomberg News reports.

Peter Schwarzenbauer, the board member who oversees Mini, says the biggest hurdles are vehicle cost and the challenge of packaging enough battery power in such a small vehicle to give it sufficient range. He notes that BMW is conferring with several carmakers worldwide about possible solutions.

Mini sales in the U.S. fell 10% to 38,500 cars in January-October, according to Autodata Corp. During the same period, the overall market shrank less than 2%, as consumers continue to shift from cars of all types to SUV/crossovers.

Schwarzenbauer says BMW favors repositioning Mini in the U.S. as an “electric urban mobility company” rather than distorting the brand by introducing larger SUVs.

Rival Daimler AG has already adopted the same philosophy with its slow-selling Smart minicar line. Last summer the marque dropped all piston-powered versions of its tiny ForTwo city car in the U.S.

Deliveries of Smart cars in the American market peaked at 10,500 units in 2014. Autodata says sales in the U.S. skidded to 6,200 cars in 2016 and were down 38% through the first 10 months of this year.​​