The Mini Clubvan Concept seen at the latest Geneva Motor Show has been approved for production. This project will be officially announced in June with production starting shortly after. This commercial-use Mini, which is the first since this marque was relaunched by BMW in 2001, is basically a modified Clubman estate that comes with split rear doors and the vestigial rear-hinged door on the driver’s side. The Clubvan has two seats, a bulkhead to split the load area from the passenger compartment, as well as opaque rear side windows. It also comes with a fully lined load area instead of the painted metal load-spaces of most car-derived vans, in hopes of marketing the Clubvan as a premium commercial vehicle. BMW has made it a point for the utilitarian Mini not to affect the strong residual values of the mainstream range. The Clubvan is targeted at boutique shops and businesses that don’t have huge items to lug around. It’s not certain yet if this would be priced lower than the £11,820 cost of a basic Mini First. Getting a price in this region would still be much lower than the £14,430 price tag on the most affordable Clubman. With the Clubvan, Mini’s lineup has been extended to seven ranges. The Clubvan has been designed to have the bodystyle of the poorly-selling Clubman, which only made up for just 3300 of the 50,000 Minis sold in 2011. Throughout the world, Mini was able to sell 25,745 Clubmans from total sales of 285,060 units.
MINI Clubvan Concept approved for production
by Andrew Christian, Email, 27 Apr, 2012
MINI Clubvan Concept
