Bespoke Mini Strip highlights firm's sustainability push
Pared-back Mini Electric given distinctive treatment by designer Paul Smith
Mini has teamed up with British fashion designer Paul Smith - known in motoring circles for his brightly coloured takes on the original Mini - to create the Mini Strip, a pared-back one-off which emphasises the firm's sustainability ambitions.
It follows the
Urbanaut concept revealed in 2020 as another statement of intent for
Mini's future as a maker of simple and sustainable cars with an emphasis on utility and efficiency.
Unlike the Urbanaut, however, the Strip is closely related to the current
Electric, with the principles of "simplicity, transparency and sustainability" guiding Smith's makeover of the car.
As its name suggests, the Strip concept does away with many of the standard car's features and adopts several unique design cues in the name of weight reduction and pure functionality. Only elements deemed "absolutely necessary" by Smith remain.
Most obviously, the Strip goes without a production-specification paint finish, wearing just a thin layer of transparent paint to prevent rush and featuring exposed grinding marks from the factory. Mini says this gives "a minimalist, high-class design with a fresh and unconventional appeal". Smith, meanwhile, refers to the unrefined finish as "the perfect imperfection".
The Strip does retain its contrasting black plastic body trim, but here it's 3D-printed using recycled plastic and decorated with exposed screwheads that aim to show how easily the car could be dismantled and recycled at the end of its usable life. The grille, blanked off to reduce drag, is made from recycled perspex to save even more weight, as are the aerodynamically optimised wheel covers and the panoramic sunroof.
Pared-back Mini Electric given distinctive treatment by designer Paul Smith
www.autocar.co.uk







