# The History of MINI | Otto Explains | AutoTronix **Section:** Otto Explains **Canonical:** https://autotronix.om/otto/mini-history **Language:** English **Arabic version:** https://autotronix.om/ar/otto/mini-history --- ## Short Answer MINI began as the Mini, a small car that the British Motor Corporation (BMC) launched on 26 August 1959 as the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis after the Suez Crisis of 1956. The classic Mini stayed in production for 41 years under BMC, BL and the Rover Group. BMW bought Rover in 1994, kept only MINI when it sold Rover in 2000, and relaunched the brand in 2001 with a new car built in Oxford. --- ## Why was the Mini created? The Mini was a response to a fuel crisis. BMC had been formed in 1952, when the Austin and Morris companies merged. After the Suez Crisis of 1956 cut oil supplies, BMC gave its engineer Alec Issigonis the task of designing an economical small car that could still seat four, and its chief, Leonard Lord, gave him largely a free hand, with one condition: the car had to use the company’s existing A-series engine. Issigonis, born in Smyrna (today’s Izmir) in 1906, had joined Morris Motors in 1936 and designed the Morris Minor of 1948. --- ## When was the first Mini built and launched? The first Mini, an Austin Seven, came off the line at Austin’s Longbridge plant in Birmingham on 4 April 1959, and the first Morris Mini-Minor followed at the Morris plant in Oxford on 8 May. BMC presented both to the public on 26 August 1959. Apart from the grille, the wheel caps and the colours they were the same car: 3.05 metres long and priced at £496. --- ## How did Mini become a name of its own? At first Mini was not a brand. The car sold under the Austin and Morris names, and the Longbridge car became the Austin Mini in 1962. In 1969 BMC moved all production to Longbridge and Mini became the name of the car itself. By then the range had grown well beyond the saloon, with vans, estates, a pick-up and the Mini Cooper of 1961, developed with the racing-car builder John Cooper, which won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967. Otto covers what the Cooper and the other key cars changed in a separate article on the legendary cars that defined MINI. --- ## What happened to the classic Mini next? The Mini outlived several attempts to replace it. The millionth was built in 1965. Later the Mini was made by the BL company, which developed the Austin Mini Metro, launched in 1980, as a new small car, yet the Mini stayed in production, and the five-millionth came off the Longbridge line in 1986. That year BL became the Rover Group. In 1990 Rover, with John Cooper’s help, brought back the Mini Cooper, and in 1995 readers of the British magazine Autocar voted the Mini the “Car of the Century”. --- ## How did BMW come to own MINI? In early 1994 BMW decided to buy the Rover Group, whose brands included Land Rover, Rover, MG, Triumph and Mini. BMW soon began planning a new Mini and showed a concept of the new MINI Cooper at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show; the project was code-named R50. The Rover takeover did not meet BMW’s expectations, and in 2000 BMW sold the Rover Group and kept only the MINI brand: the Phoenix consortium took control of Rover in May 2000, while the new MINI stayed with BMW. The last classic Mini left Longbridge on 4 October 2000, after 41 years and more than 5.3 million cars. BMW’s side of this story is told in Otto’s [history of BMW](https://autotronix.om/otto/bmw-history). --- ## How did the new MINI begin? When it sold Rover, BMW kept the car plant in Oxford, the engine plant at Hams Hall and the press shop in Swindon. MINI production started at Plant Oxford on 26 April 2001, and the MINI One and MINI Cooper went on sale in Britain on 7 July 2001. BMW Group describes the new MINI as the first premium car in the small-car segment. From 2006 the three British sites worked as a “production triangle”: bodies, paint and final assembly in Oxford, pressings from Swindon and petrol engines from Hams Hall. On 24 July 2019 Oxford built the ten-millionth MINI since 1959. --- ## How did MINI grow beyond Oxford? As the range grew, so did the production network. The first MINI Countryman, in 2010, was built in Graz, Austria, and in 2014 BMW decided to have MINI models built under contract by VDL Nedcar in Born, the Netherlands. In 2018 the BMW Group and the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall agreed a joint venture that includes building all-electric MINIs for China, and the third-generation Countryman is built in Leipzig, the first MINI made in Germany. --- ## Where is MINI heading now? Electric drive is the main thread. MINI E field trials began in Britain in 2009, and the MINI Cooper SE, the brand’s first all-electric production model, went into customer production at Oxford in January 2020. In 2023 MINI presented a new model family as a step on its path towards an all-electric range by 2030; within it, Cooper is now the name of the 3-door, 5-door and Convertible models rather than an engine level. The all-electric MINI Aceman followed in 2024, and MINI delivered 100,000 fully electric cars in 2025. Today MINI is one of the BMW Group’s brands, alongside BMW, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad. --- ## Common Questions **Who designed the original Mini?** Alec Issigonis, BMC’s engineer, who was given the task in late 1956. He was knighted in 1969 and died in 1988. **Who owns MINI today?** The BMW Group. It bought MINI as part of the Rover Group in 1994 and kept it when it sold Rover in 2000. **Where are MINIs built today?** The petrol MINI Cooper and the Convertible are built at Plant Oxford, the Countryman in Leipzig, and the BMW Group’s joint venture with Great Wall covers all-electric MINIs for China. **How many classic Minis were built?** More than 5.3 million over 41 years, until the last one left Longbridge on 4 October 2000. --- ## Related Otto Explanations - Why You Need a Pre-Purchase Inspection Before Buying a Used Car: https://autotronix.om/otto/pre-purchase-inspection - When Should I Book Garage, Lab, or Express?: https://autotronix.om/otto/garage-lab-express-difference --- ## Related Services - AutoTronix Garage: https://autotronix.om/garage - AutoTronix Lab: https://autotronix.om/lab - AutoTronix PERFORMANCE: https://autotronix.om/performance --- ## Book a Service WhatsApp: +968 9966 8600 https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=96899668600&type=phone_number&app_absent=0 Location: Mabellah Industrial, Street 7, Muscat — Saturday to Thursday, 9 AM to 9 PM