Mini used final week’s 2023 Munich auto present to unveil a third-generation Countryman measuring 5.1 inches longer than its predecessor, making it the largest Mini but. Nevertheless, the model recognized for its small vehicles could also be planning to go even greater.

Talking with Wheels on the launch of the brand new Countryman, which is anticipated to succeed in the U.S. subsequent yr as a 2025 mannequin, Mini chief Stefanie Wurst hinted {that a} compact van with greater than 5 seats was doable and pointed to 2020’s Imaginative and prescient Urbanaut idea.

“Urbanaut is unquestionably an fascinating idea,” she stated. “Urbanaut wasn’t very particular on seat capability but it surely had a lounge space so as a substitute of doing that you might additionally think about a much bigger seating capability.”

It is not the primary time Mini has hinted at a automobile greater than the Countryman. The automaker in 2020 stated it was engaged on an SUV bigger than the Countryman, although Wurst in her interview with Wheels stated she’d relatively introduce a brand new sort of auto idea than merely going up in dimension.

“I personally assume we’ve reached dimension, but I believe once we launch a bigger Mini or an prolonged Countryman, I don’t know if that is nonetheless a Mini,” she stated. “I might relatively go on a brand new modern idea that’s extra sudden and stunning as a result of Mini is about doing issues a unique method.”

Rumors of a Mini minivan date again a number of years, with the Traveller title usually linked to these rumors. The unique Mini Traveller, or Morris Mini-Minor Traveller formally, was a smallish van that in some generations got here with bolted-on wooden physique components, and Mini could persist with the normal title simply because it did with the Clubman and Countryman names that have been each borrowed from the unique Austin-Morris lineup.

Whereas a Mini minivan could also be years away nonetheless, Wurst hinted that Mini could introduce extra Countryman variants to assist fill the void left by the Clubman which bows out after 2024. The automaker can even launch the Aceman subsequent yr, an electrical crossover smaller than the Countryman.