Our tool for managing your permission to our use of cookies is temporarily offline. Therefore some functionality is missing.
PLANET.
MINI PLANTS: TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION.
MINI is fully committed to electrification. We are already pursuing sustainability strategies today that influence our approach to supply chains and materials, electrification, production plants and our startup programme URBAN-X. You can find out what this means in detail in our series around sustainability, "BIG LOVE FOR THE PLANET: This is how MINI is heading into the future."
MINI also wants to protect the environment in production – at the Oxford and Swindon plants, for example, with the following measures:
REDUCED WATER
CONSUMPTION.
Car factories also require a lot of water, like in the paint shops for example. Over the past few years, MINI has succeeded in reducing water consumption at the Oxford plant. Thanks to the installation of a reverse osmosis system, water for the painting process can be treated on site, saving MINI up to 11,000 litres per hour in production alone. In Swindon, rainwater is collected on the factory roof and used, amongst other things, for flushing toilets.
SOLAR POWER AND REDUCED ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION.
When the photovoltaic system was installed on one of the production buildings in Oxford in 2014, it was one of the largest in the whole of the United Kingdom. More than 11,500 solar modules cover an area the size of about five football pitches and supply production halls and administration buildings with around 2.7 gigawatts of energy from renewable sources per year. This is the equivalent of the electricity consumption of over 930 households (based on an average household in the UK), and reduces the annual carbon footprint by around 1,500 tonnes. At the same time, the plant is also working to reduce its electricity consumption, for example, with a new heating and ventilation system with heat recovery for the painting line.
ROOF INSULATION AND A REDUCED CARBON FOOTPRINT.
MINI has been producing in Oxford since 1959, but the buildings on the site are much older. After William Morris founded WRM Motors Limited, the first car rolled out of the halls in March 1913. To prevent heat from escaping through the roof of the buildings, some of which are more than 100 years old, MINI is investing in roof renovations and insulation. Calculations have shown that a 25-centimetre layer of insulation installed over an area of around 90,000 square metres, and the modernised heating system, can cut annual heating costs and CO2 emissions by half.
Focus on environmentally conscious logistics.
In the MINI plant at Oxford, two of our onsite roads are partly made of recycled tyres. The rubber powder obtained from discarded tyres is added to the road construction bitumen, which uses fewer primary raw materials such as tar and concrete. But even outside the factory premises, when it comes to sustainable logistics, MINI is focusing on more environmentally friendly solutions. For example, 21 liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered trucks which travel on 15 different routes in the United Kingdon, deliver components from suppliers to the Oxford plant. The environmental and climate-friendly impact of this fleet is impressive: These LNG-powered trucks are quieter than diesel trucks, there are almost no particulate matter emissions, and 20 % less CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions can be observed. If the LNG trucks are powered by bio-LNG in the future, CO2 emissions will be reduced by 90%. But rail transport is also involved in reducing the CO2 footprint: two trains transport 550 MINI vehicles from Oxford to the port in Southampton, saving 50 truck journeys per day.
THERE IS NO PLANET B. Each of us is responsible for conserving and protecting our environment. MINI is fully committed to electrification. But that’s not all; we also want our supply chains to be fair and transparent, our factories to be low on energy consumption and high on human friendliness, and our materials to be resource-conserving and recyclable. We want to lead the way forward – and get as many people to join us as possible. Why are we doing this? Because it’s in our DNA. Here at MINI we’ve always been about turning something small into something great. The first classic Mini was designed in the late 1950s, at a time when the Suez crisis had made the industrial nations of the West realise that fossil fuels were not an infinite resource. MINI has been striving ever since to make a brand of mobility possible within the limited confines of urban space, imagining cars which combine that go-kart feeling with deep environmental awareness. This is something we owe to our community and to the generations still to come.
Illustration: Andrew Joyce
Disclaimer:
MINI COOPER SE: Energy consumption in kWh/100 km combined: 17,6-15,4, fuel consumption in l/100 km combined: 0, CO2 emissions in g/km combined: 0, electric range in km: 203 - 232. All values based on the combined WLTP test cycle. Further information: www.mini.com/disclaimer.
Hinweis (English disclaimers below):
Die offiziellen Angaben zu Kraftstoffverbrauch, CO2-Emissionen und Stromverbrauch wurden nach dem vorgeschriebenen Messverfahren VO (EU) 715/2007 in der jeweils geltenden Fassung ermittelt. Die Angaben berücksichtigen bei Spannbreiten Unterschiede in der gewählten Rad- und Reifengröße. Die Werte der Fahrzeuge basieren bereits auf der neuen WLTP-Verordnung und werden in NEFZ-Äquivalenzwerte zurückgerechnet, um den Vergleich zwischen den Fahrzeugen zu gewährleisten. Bei diesen Fahrzeugen können die CO2-Werte für fahrzeugbezogene Steuern oder andere Abgaben, die (zumindest unter anderem) auf CO2-Emissionen basieren, von den hier angegebenen Werten abweichen. Die CO2-Effizienz-Spezifikationen werden gemäß der Richtlinie 1999/94/EG und der Europäischen Verordnung in der jeweils gültigen Fassung festgelegt. Die angegebenen Werte basieren auf dem Kraftstoffverbrauch, den CO2-Werten und dem Energieverbrauch nach dem NEFZ-Zyklus für die Klassifizierung. Weitere Informationen über den offiziellen Kraftstoffverbrauch und die spezifischen CO2-Emissionen neuer Personenkraftwagen können dem "Handbuch über den Kraftstoffverbrauch, die CO2-Emissionen und den Stromverbrauch neuer Personenkraftwagen" entnommen werden, das an allen Verkaufsstellen und unter https://www.dat.de/angebote/verlagsprodukte/leitfaden-kraftstoffverbrauch.html erhältlich ist.
Disclaimer:
The values of fuel consumptions, CO2 emissions and energy consumptions shown were determined according to the European Regulation (EC) 715/2007 in the version applicable at the time of type approval. The figures refer to a vehicle with basic configuration in Germany and the range shown considers optional equipment and the different size of wheels and tires available on the selected model. The values of the vehicles are already based on the new WLTP regulation and are translated back into NEDC-equivalent values in order to ensure the comparison between the vehicles. [With respect to these vehicles, for vehicle related taxes or other duties based (at least inter alia) on CO2-emissions the CO2 values may differ to the values stated here.] The CO2 efficiency specifications are determined according to Directive 1999/94/EC and the European Regulation in its current version applicable. The values shown are based on the fuel consumption, CO2 values and energy consumptions according to the NEDC cycle for the classification. For further information about the official fuel consumption and the specific CO2 emission of new passenger cars can be taken out of the „handbook of fuel consumption, the CO2 emission and power consumption of new passenger cars“, which is available at all selling points and at https://www.dat.de/angebote/verlagsprodukte/leitfaden-kraftstoffverbrauch.html