Spot the difference! Mini reveals four next-gen features

Mini wants you to know that it has gone back to the drawing board for its next generation of car design, and today it has teased the first four of many things that have been entirely rethought.

They are as follows: the OLED display, the steering wheel, the seats and the alloy wheels. What, no laser blasters?

Let’s start with the touchscreen. This being a Mini it is still round and still bolted into the middle of the dashboard, except Mini claims the 240mm-wide unit is the first touch display with a fully round surface.

It acts as both instrument cluster and on-board monitor, apparently, housing the infotainment system and - we regret to confirm - the climate controls. Not a great start.

The new steering wheel adopts a two-spoke design as standard, with an optional fabric finish and a number of quality, sustainable materials weaved in. That ‘Vibrant Silver’ you can see in the gallery above is a recurring theme, Mini says.

As for the seats, Mini insists its new range will be ‘diverse’ (whatever that means), with new patterns paired with classic elements that we’ve seen before. It also promises armrests integrated into the seats for the first time. Clutching at straws much?

And then there’s the light-alloy wheels: the colour contrast gives ‘an illusion of size’, claims the firm, and the flat surface is good for efficiency and therefore range. Going by the current-gen Mini Electric and its 120-miles-on-a-good-day, this will be very necessary.

“With our new Charismatic Simplicity design language, we are completely rethinking the iconic MINI,” explained head of Mini design, Oliver Heilmer. “Our purist, progressive approach combines the simplicity of functional elements with the emotionality that MINI is renowned for.

“We are convinced that the conscious reduction to a few, but expressive elements enable innovations that would have been unthinkable before.”