2021 Mini Countryman refreshed inside and out

Last week, Mini gave us a glimpse of the updated 2021 Countryman crossover and now it has fully revealed its light makeover of the current second-generation model ahead of its launch later this year.

The biggest changes take place on the Countryman’s exterior; its front bumper has been redesigned with the round foglights sitting below the new grille which is flanked by standard LED headlights.

Around the back, the new rear bumper is finished entirely in body colour and can feature a skid plate-style panel. The LED taillights look pretty tasty with the Union Jack design, just like every other Mini model. Two new exterior colours have been added, White Silver and Sage Green and there’s also a new Piano Black Exterior package which swaps chrome for high-gloss black accents on the headlight surrounds, grille and door handles.

Mechanically, the Countryman is carryover so the base Cooper still features a 134-horsepower turbocharged three-cylinder. The Cooper S gets a 189-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder. The John Cooper Works gets 301 horsepower from a turbo four-cylinder. The Cooper SE plug-in hybrid combines the three-cylinder with an electric motor to get 224 horsepower.

The Cooper and Cooper S are available with front-wheel drive and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission or all-wheel drive with an eight-speed automatic. The John Cooper Works comes only with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic, while the hybrid comes with all-wheel-drive and a six-speed automatic.

Inside, it boasts revised trim and updated infotainment systems with 8.8in displays. Speaking of the latter, certain systems now support Amazon Alexa.

It also gets a leather-wrapped sport steering wheel and a newly optional digital instrument cluster. Last but not least, there are two new leather options called Chesterfield Malt Brown and Chesterfield Indigo Blue.