We often get exciting opportunities at ellectric, but this one has to be near the top – and now that it’s been revealed, we can finally share it with you. MINI has completely reinvented its path with their freshly unveiled MINI Concept Aceman, an initial preview of its future model generation’s new design. This concept car is a clear symbol of MINI’s commitment to put design and technological innovation at the forefront of their design process in an effort to create the driving pleasure of the future. 

The fully electric vehicle with a reimagined design language, digital interior experience and responsible materials – with absolutely no leather and chrome elements – is the very first crossover model for the premium small car segment. We had the opportunity to see it first hand, hop in to explore all of its exciting features and even got it presented by none other than Head of MINI Design Oliver Heilmer. Explore more about the MINI Concept Aceman also in our video below.

A new design era of MINI

The world premiere of the MINI Concept is a showcase of the brand’s new design language, representing their launch into an entirely new design era. While staying true to the brand’s traditional values, their passion for technological innovation results in a vehicle packed with character, powerful emotion and progressive appeal.

Everything about the appearance of the MINI Concept Aceman expresses agility and a self-confident presence. This is a merge of the brand’s distinctive features from two of its most successful models, the MINI Cooper and the MINI Countryman, creating a modern interpretation of a crossover model. This was definitely a striking aspect of the car upon our first look. 

“The design language of the MINI Concept Aceman heralds the beginning of a new design era for MINI. Design features typical of the MINI brand have always been unmistakable. We are returning to these now, but at the same time consistently combining them with innovative technology. With this approach, we are redeveloping the MINI design icons, with all their analogue strengths, for the digital future.” – Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design

The exterior of the MINI Concept Aceman

With an exterior length of 4.05 metres, a width of 1.99 metres and a height of 1.59 metres all in a particularly contemporary form, the concept car is everything you would expect from the brand. The classic three-way division of body, all-round window graphics and roof is fully reinterpreted, with a flush transition between the vehicle body and glass surfaces making the most of the aerodynamic properties.

The wide surrounds on the lower edge of the body, strongly contoured wheel arches, large wheels, a striking roof rack, and front and rear valance panels styled as an underride protection all emphasise the solid all-round characteristics of a crossover model for urban driving fun. 

The front 

The radiator grille element at the centre of the vehicle front is surrounded by clear surfaces, the traditionally hexagonal outline having been further refined into an octagonal contour. One of the key features of the new design is its illuminated surround, accentuating the car’s exciting features. The LED contour lighting in a shade of light green provides a striking light signature both in daytime running lights and in night design.

The MINI Concept Aceman headlights also enhance their own contours, moving them away from the classic round shape. The continuous contour lighting of the daytime running light brings out its sense of independence, while the contour of the lights follows through to the surfaces of the outer areas of the bonnet, further accentuating their individual expression.

The rear

The generously designed surfaces and horizontal lines give the rear of the MINI Concept Aceman a striking and modern appearance, clearly emphasising the vehicle’s width. This effect is supported by a striking indentation at the transition between the body and the window graphics, which makes the most of the aerodynamic properties of the vehicle and lends it a pronounced, athletic shoulder line. In the rear perspective, this creates the cascading contour MINI is known for, gradually broadening towards the road. 

The dark roof spoiler and the glass surface of the rear window further reinforce this impression by visually receding into the background. The distinctive vertical MINI rear lights provide a captivating contrast to the clear, horizontal surfaces. They also feature matrix LED units, as do the radiator grille element at the front of the vehicle and the interior of the headlights, allowing for different lighting scenarios depending on the situation. 

Variant colours  

The MINI Concept Aceman’s youthful, lively character is also underlined by an expressive paint finish for the body and a stylishly coordinated contrasting colour for the roof. The Icy Sunglow Green variant body paint is a light turquoise shade diving into gold and features a shade that comes through with varying levels of intensity depending on the light and the perspective. This means that it impressively tracks the subtle three-dimensionality of the surfaces and lines in the exterior. The MINI Concept Aceman roof is painted in traditional metallic British Racing Green, with a dark green trim on the lower edge of the body and on the wheel arches that lends an attractive contrast to the light exterior colour. 

The interior of the MINI Concept Aceman

The MINI Concept Aceman interior is also dominated by a reduced design with clear contours and carefully executed details. It combines innovative technology with newly interpreted, yet typical MINI design features. 

The concept car’s cockpit is reduced to the bare essentials, just as the designer of the classic MINI had in mind back in 1959. Alec Issigonis designed an interior which, in addition to the seats, steering wheel and gear lever, needed nothing more than a central round instrument and toggle switch bar to experience unrivalled driving pleasure. We love the “Charismatic Simplicity” principle at MINI, which combines style with minimalism. 

“We use the principle of a design focused on the essentials in the MINI Concept Aceman to prominently showcase the central controls and their high-quality finish. The interior design is all about giving the occupants a truly immersive experience.” – Oliver Heilmer, Head of MINI Design

As we have previously written about the exciting things happening in electric car sound design, we particularly enjoyed the brand new independent sound design of the concept car, which creates emotionally compelling drive sounds and an authentic background for the new Experience Modes.

Colour & material design

The minimalist interior design is combined with a colour and material scheme specifically developed for the MINI Concept Aceman, using innovative, high-quality materials selected with a conscious eye on sustainability. The minimalist door panels and in the dashboard area feature a khaki green base colour for the background surfaces, combined with knitted textile perimeters made of light grey recycled polyester with a slight blue tinge and featuring precisely placed decorative seams.

The concept car’s seating surfaces have a lively, three-dimensional look achieved by a combination of textile flat knit, velvet velour and waffle weave, an over-dimensional houndstooth pattern and embroidered X and O graphics. The MINI Concept Aceman is an innovative demonstration of the great potential of textile surfaces for modern forms of design expression, which makes us even more excited to see more from this new generation in the future. 

UX/UI reimagined

Now this is where things get really exciting. In terms of connectivity and user experience, MINI has truly outdone itself with this concept car, and paved a way to the future. This is first accomplished with the MINI Concept Aceman’s dashboard, extending particularly far into the central area, which forms the perfect setting for the central interface combining all the functions of the instrument cluster and the on-board monitor as a round OLED display. True to its traditions, a toggle switch bar is set below the large screen, where touch control using state-of-the-art digitalisation and analogue functionality with physical switches are uniquely and typically combined in a way that is unmistakably MINI.

Three new experience modes 

With this decisive step into advanced technology and progressive user experience, MINI created three new Experience Modes available to the driver and front passenger, which generate new possibilities to individualise and personalise the driving experience in the interior of the MINI Concept Aceman. They combine specific displays and colour worlds, which are depicted on the central interface panel and through interior projection, and a coordinated sound stage. We got to try them out in our video, so make sure to check it out for a visual of what we’re talking about here. 

First, the Personal Mode allows the user to transfer an image motif of their own free choice to the OLED display. This novel form of personalisation is complemented by a moving image projection on the dashboard which can, for example, show cloud formations, ocean waves and the shimmering surface of a swimming pool. The selected projection is accompanied by a suitable sound backdrop. We already knew that driving could be quite a meditative experience, but this brings peaceful driving to a whole new level. 

The Pop-Up Mode, on the other hand, will provide the driver with eventful navigation and some fun surprises along the way. If they are feeling particularly spontaneous, the system can suggest appropriate navigation destinations based on the category selected and will show the route on the OLED display and via projection onto the dashboard. For example, they could select the “Adventures” category, and then a popular restaurant under “Tasty” or a currently active event location as a “Trending” destination. Specific sounds are played for each category to bring even more of a sense of anticipation to the experience ahead. 

Last but not least, for a fun pit stop either at a traffic stop or while charging the vehicle, the Vivid Mode enables an interactive design of the display area on the OLED display and the adjacent surfaces. Simply touch the display in the central interface to create coloured “letter bubbles” from the components of the “Aceman” lettering and move them left and right on the dashboard. The letters have their own movement algorithm and interact with each other in the projection by overlapping and forming fluid graphic shapes and patterns. These playful elements are once again underlined by experimental sounds whose rhythm constantly changes with the interaction between user and vehicle, creating a fully immersive experience.

Welcome scenario 

Speaking of immersive experience and the interaction between user and vehicle, we were really impressed by the MINI Concept Aceman’s welcome scenario, and it’s frankly one of the best we have seen. As you can see in the video, when Britta approaches the MINI Concept Aceman, she is tracked by a cloud of light in the front of the vehicle that gets brighter as she gets closer. At the same time, an interactive sound emanates from the exterior loudspeakers, with intensity fluctuations according to the distance between the vehicle and the user. When the vehicle is unlocked, the matrix LED units on the grille surface display a Union Jack graphic. 

As you’ll also see, once the door is opened, a colourful graphic image is projected onto the floor in the entry area. A corresponding radial “colour burst” of maximised pixels can be seen at the same time on the round display of the central interface, accompanied by a similarly multicoloured projection directed from the roof lining onto the dashboard and door panels. The welcome scenario is completed by the words “Hey Friend” on the display and a spherical sound unfolding, in which overlapping chattering voices and music sequences create the impression of a convivial meet-up, to be further developed on the coming drive in the MINI Concept Aceman.

This world premiere is a really exciting step for MINI, and for the future of design in electric cars in general. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience discovering the concept car, and of course were excited to be able to share this exclusive with you all. 

Pictures: MINI / Fabian Kirchbauer for ellectric
Text: Britta Reineke