Green cars in India have a huge market as people are now developing a penchant for them. Before starting with the journey of Mini One and its new chapter in India, a brief history lesson is due. The idea of this car was given by Late Sir Alec Issigonis, but the number of modifications that idea has undergone, Sir Alec’s grave would sure be one of the most restless ones. He was always against any change in his beloved Mini One eco-friendly car, but it appears that BMW has shattered his ideals quite badly. Though, the truth is that without BMW, this green car in India will never get this much fame.
Notably, Mini cars have been a great success in India and abroad. The leading automobile manufacturer BMW had already started the production of Countryman D and ONE Countryman models at its Chennai plant in 2013. The rest of the Mini car models are brought to India as CBU. Interestingly, this was the first time when production of Mini started outside Europe.
The locally produced Mini cars include both petrol and diesel versions of the Countryman series– MINI Cooper D Countryman and MINI Cooper D Countryman High. Both the Cooper D Countryman and Cooper D Countryman High are powered by a 1.6-litre diesel engine, which churns out a maximum power of around 120 bhp with peak torque of 270 Nm. The engine of this car comes mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, and runs on a FWD drive. Out of the two models, the latter one has better features than Cooper D Countryman. The models are made available to Indian customers via CKD route while the other cars follow CBU route.
Industry experts believe that this decision of BMW seems to be a smart way of providing stiff competition to Mercedes-Benz A-Class that falls in the same price range. Mini Cooper Countryman is the only four-door mini car model available in the country. The prices of the Countryman diesel variants are as follows:
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MINI Cooper D Countryman – Rs. 25.6 Lakh
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MINI Cooper D Countryman High – Rs. 28.9 Lakh
