By Otsile Kadiege

Mini took the wraps off their first-ever all-electric crossover for the premium small cars segment in concept form. The British automaker’s Aceman boasts a striking design, a fully-electric drive and a new digital interior space experience and a material concept which uses absolutely no leather or chrome.

Charismatic Simplicity

For the Concept Aceman, Mini used the new pared-back design language dubbed “Charismatic Simplicity”. The Mini Concept Aceman expresses agility and a self-confident presence. This merges distinctive features of the brand’s two most successful models, the Mini Cooper and the Mini Countryman, to create a modern interpretation of a crossover model.

Upfront, the Concept Aceman boasts a striking upright front end with Mini’s traditional hexagonal radiator grille which is completely closed. The grille’s hexagonal outline features LED contour lighting in a shade of light green. The Concept Aceman also features Matrix LED headlights and contrasting faux skid plates and orange coated vertical trims

The Concept Aceman’s side profile boasts flared fenders, large futuristic-looking wheels, contrasting cladding and flush door handles. It also features contrasting pillars and functional roof rails. Its rear end is also typical Mini with a modish touch thanks to Matrix LED taillights with a directional-like pattern design and large ‘ACEMAN’ lettering on the tailgate.

Staying true to the brand’s youthful and lively character, the Concept Aceman is finished with a Icy Sunglow Green body paint, a light turquoise shade diving into gold, features a shade that comes through with varying levels of intensity depending on the light and the perspective.

Minimalist interior

Inside, the Concept Aceman has a modern, minimalistic interior with Mini’s typical design and layout. The concept car’s cockpit is consistently reduced to the bare essentials, just as the designer of the classic Mini had in mind in 1959. Alec Issigonis designed an interior which, in addition to the seats, steering wheel with backlit textile surfaces and gear lever, needed nothing more than a central round OLED display and toggle switch bar.

The leather-free interior features wide-open and gently curved surfaces in the area of the door panels and the dashboard.The large panoramic glass roof of the Mini Concept Aceman is patterned by the transverse and diagonal struts of the roof rack, whose structure picks up on the Union Jack flag motif.

Concept Aceman technology

The distinctive MINI display and operating experience scales new heights with its reinterpretation of the familiar central interface. MINI is the world’s first car manufacturer to present a circular OLED display that takes up the entire surface of the central interface. The user interface features a completely new graphic display, a modern layout and attractively designed widgets. The display and control system in the production vehicle will be based on the latest generation of the MINI Operating System, which for the first time is built on an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) software stack.

The Concept Aceman will also feature three innovative Experience Modes which are designed to generate new possibilities to individualise and personalise the driving experience in the interior of the Aceman. These modes include personal mode, Pop-Up Mode and Vivid Mode.

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.

Pop-Up Mode in the MINI Concept Aceman will provide you with eventful navigation and some surprising moments. The system suggests appropriate navigation destinations based on a category selected by the user, shows the route on the OLED display and via projection onto the dashboard.

Vivid Mode enables an interactive design of the display area on the OLED display and the adjacent surfaces. This entertainment function that can be used both during short breaks when stopping at traffic lights and while charging the high-voltage battery.