Classic car is reborn as an electric at Oxford plant

Classic Minis produced between 1959 and 2000 are being given a second life as modern electrics with a 0-100kph sprint of around nine seconds. Photo: dpa/BMW Group/Bernhard Filser

If Alec Issigonis was designing the classic Mini today, he would have given it an electric motor – and that’s why experts at the BMW-owned Mini plant in Oxford, England, have begun doing exactly that.

Engineers take a classic Mini with its four-pot petrol engine and install an electric motor, giving the combustion versions a new green lease of life.