BMW to Cut Drivetrain Variations in Half

BMW is moving towards electrification full-force. In doing so BMW and MINI are announcing that they will be cutting in half ICE drivetrain variations in half. This will allow both brands to streamline their offerings and allow consumer make more sense of it all. And perhaps most crucially it will help alleviate costs as BMW and MINI look to spend vast sums of money bringing full electric cars to market.

Just how complex is the current offering of drivetrain variations In MINI alone? A BimmerPost contributor (BradM850i) put together a list that demonstrates this in rather glaring terms.

UKL platform which still has some older ~2014 released Minis has 15 variants:

B38 6MT fwd/4wd
B38 7DCT fwd
B38 6AT fwd plus electric motor at rear
B48 6MT fwd/4wd
B48 7DCT
B48 8AT 4wd
B37 6MT fwd/4wd
B37 7DCT fwd
B37 6AT 4wd
B47 6MT fwd/4wd
B47 8AT 4wd

Then there’s the CLAR platform G platform where thing get really complex (ignoring the F22, F32 as they are effectively EOL) has 17 variants:

B48 6MT rwd
B48 8AT rwd/4wd
B48 8AT rwd/4wd plus electric motor
B58 8AT rwd/4wd
S58 8AT 4wd
B58 8AT 4wd plus electric motor
N63 8AT 4wd
S63 8AT 4wd
N74 8AT rwd/4wd
B47 8AT rwd/4wd
B57 8AT rwd/4wd

What gets killed? We know that the N74 is leaving us and the B37 will likely go away as electrification comes online. Perhaps some of the clues are in the F40 1 Series hatch where there are only 8 variants: