Mini reveals its first five door hatch

Mini, the BMW subsidiary for the first time in its existence has reveled a five door hatch. The new five door is based on Mini 3 and apart from the extra couple of doors and extended body dimensions, the new hatch looks similar to the ongoing model. The car is based on the company's successful UKL1 platform. Its is expected that Mini will also launch this five door hatch in Indian market by the early 2015; however, the company will first ensure that this new model is available in European market by September 2014.

Talking about the interiors, undoubtedly the comfort level has gone an inch higher. The wheelbase of this five door hatch is extended by 72mm which simply means more legroom for rear seats. The hatch also boosts three seats in the rear and the boot space is also increased from 211 liters to 278 liters. With the 60:40 rear seat split, the hatch further adds 941-liters of space for that extra luggage.

When compared with the three-door variant, the Mini five door 3982mm is longer by 161mm while a bit smaller than Cooper S and Copper D (4005mm). The 5 door Mini also boasts 61mm of additional width and 15mm of extra headroom. The company has priced their five door Mini quite aggressively with the base Copper variant priced at £15,999 (approx INR 15,88,655) while the mid variant Cooper D is tagged at £17,050 (approx INR 16,93,016) and the top of the line variants Cooper S at £19,255 (approx INR 19,11,966) and Cooper SD at £20,050 (approx INR 19,90,907). 

After the initial launch, the company has also planned to introduce the Clubman and Convertible variant in the five door model. With the arrival of five door variant, the competition in premium hatchback segment will become more furious with Mercedes-Benz A Class, B Class and also with the upcoming Fiat Abarth 500 already in the league.

Under the hood, there is not much new to talk about as the car shares its engine specification with 3 door sibling. The car houses 1.5-liter, 3 cylinder TwinPower turbo engine tuned in a way to develop power in two forms- 134bhp & 220 Nm torque and 114bhp & 270Nm torque. The car is also made available with 2.0 liter, 4 cylinder TwinPower turbo diesel which also develops two power output: a 167bhp with 360Nm of torque and 189bhp with 280Nm of  peak torque. It is expected that the engines will be coupled to either 6 speed manual or 6 speed Steptronic transmission.