00:01This is a 2026 Mini. Small, expressive, instantly recognisable.
00:07But today's Mini could also look kind of like this.
00:12Interesting, isn't it?
00:13You heard right. It wasn't always as clear as one might think.
00:16To get here, we had to master what seemed as the impossible task.
00:20Yeah, it's a bit of a wild start.
00:22This is the story of creating a new original.
00:26Oh, sorry. I forgot to introduce.
00:27This is Adrian, head of BMW Group Design.
00:31He experienced it first-hand.
00:33But to understand why this felt like an impossible task,
00:37we have to go back.
00:39Way back.
00:40In the late 1950s, Sir Alex Isagonis designed a car
00:44as an answer to the economic crisis back then.
00:47It should be thrifty and consumption, roomy, but still keep a small footprint.
00:52The original Mini was born.
00:54First of all, it was an incredibly clever car.
00:57It was so clever, it became an instant hit.
01:00It sold like hotcakes.
01:02People loved it.
01:03There were wild variants of it.
01:05People started racing it.
01:06On racetracks, on mountains.
01:08It became sort of a giant killer.
01:11At the same time, it found its way into pop culture.
01:14The Mini became a style icon.
01:16And that brings us back to our almost impossible task.
01:21It was all over the news.
01:23BMW was buying Rover.
01:25You heard right.
01:26BMW bought Rover.
01:28And Rover owned, guess what?
01:29Mini.
01:30This was the chance to take an icon and create a new original.
01:34The brief was very open.
01:36Design a new Mini.
01:37But how do you touch a legend without breaking it?
01:39Too much change and you lose the soul.
01:41Too little and you lose the point.
01:43That was the almost impossible task.
01:46We did a huge competition.
01:48Designers from both Rover and BMW started working on the same question.
01:52Almost 40 years, the very same car, untouched.
01:56And then all of a sudden, we had to translate that into the present and into the future.
02:02The stakes couldn't have been higher.
02:04It was a piece of British identity.
02:07The press was watching.
02:09The fans were watching.
02:11Different directions began to emerge.
02:13Interpretations of what Mini could be.
02:15I tried to think of the car as a rally car.
02:18Adrian's design was one of three designs to be built as a concept car.
02:22The ACV30.
02:23Next, Rover presented its concept.
02:26The spiritual.
02:27You get very different trains of thoughts in the different locations.
02:31In the end product, you also see somehow a mix of the ideas.
02:34A car that is very small, so it makes clever use of space.
02:39But it is quite a low car with the wheels on the corners.
02:43So I think a little bit of the rally history did actually come into the final design.
02:49The moment of decision has come, and with it, a lot of questions.
02:52Everybody was hoping that, of course, they were going to recognize some of the original Mini in the new one.
02:59It was time for the reveal.
03:04The new Mini was here, and people loved it.
03:07It was a very exciting new start.
03:10The almost impossible task had been solved.
03:13So it seemed.
03:15What it really did was open the next door towards a new original.
03:20By the way, meet Holger, head of Mini Design.
03:24He can tell you what it took to make the new Mini an icon of its own.
03:30It started with a foundation.
03:32A set of things that were simply never up for discussion.
03:35The overall proportions of the car, speed or hatchback, wheels on the corner, the lovable details.
03:40Built on that foundation, Mini grew.
03:42From one car to an entire family.
03:44I'm very happy that we take the philosophy of Mini forward and expand it into other areas of purpose.
03:53And step by step, Mini became something more.
03:55People using Mini as an extension of lifestyle.
03:58Customization became even more part of the identity.
04:01There's not one Mini that looks like the Mini next to it.
04:04People started applying their own style.
04:06Their own story.
04:08It allows us to extend our personality.
04:11At that point, Mini had started to grow beyond the car itself.
04:15And just like the original Mini found its way into culture.
04:18Today's Mini is doing the same.
04:21Collaborations are adding even more character.
04:23The process in of itself is so interesting and brings forward completely new things that we haven't done with Mini
04:30before.
04:31And at the heart of all of it, it builds a relationship.
04:34The Mini is one of these cars I want people to attach to.
04:38I want to see a relationship happening.
04:42And that's possible with Mini.
04:4620 years into this ownership came the next step, the boldest in years.
04:51We introduced a radically new design.
04:53For some, almost too different.
04:55But in reality, closer to the original than ever before.
04:59And something interesting happened.
05:01People started missing things that never even existed in the original Mini.
05:06Over time, the reference had shifted.
05:09Think about what that means.
05:11Mini was no longer only measured against its past.
05:14It had started defining its own.
05:16Society and culture creates an icon.
05:19Or selects something to become an icon.
05:22Today, we could say the almost impossible task had been solved.
05:26But in reality, the opposite happened.
05:28It grew.
05:30Design is never finished.
05:31We will always continue developing along these lines.
05:34Mini created some icons along the way.
05:36And we'll try again.
05:38But it's not an easy task.
05:41And quite honestly, it was never supposed to be solved.
05:45Only to be carried forward.
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