The three electric MINIs from The Italian Job that were almost 20 years ahead of their time for MINI

When we think of electric cars from the early 2000s, experimental models, small manufacturer projects, or prototypes that never made it to dealerships usually come to mind. But there were three models that millions of people saw without realizing it in one of the most famous action movies of the 2000s.

In 2003, The Italian Job made the MINI one of the main stars of the film. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Jason Statham drove several specially modified units to feature in chases through the streets of Los Angeles, canals, staircases, and subway tunnels. It was in these last locations that a surprise appeared—one that seemed almost science fiction at the time: three MINIs powered by electric propulsion.

The reason had nothing to do with a MINI strategy or an experiment designed to predict the future. It was something much simpler. The production team wanted to shoot in Los Angeles Metro, but the authorities wouldn’t allow cars with internal combustion engines there due to exhaust fumes. Director F. Gary Gray then turned to BMW asking for three electric MINIs, but they replied that there were no electric MINIs available.

The solution was to create them themselves. Transportation coordinator John Carpenter and his team modified three MINIs specifically for filming: two MINI Coopers and a MINI Cooper S. The latter was the red MINI driven by Charlize Theron. According to MINI, these were the only electric models of this type that existed at the time.

The movie used a total of 32 MINIs, though three in particular became famous on screen: the red one, the blue one, and the white one. Not all of them were electric, far from it. Most of the fleet was used for various driving scenes, while the three modified vehicles were used to film the sequences set in the subway.

And the modifications didn’t stop there. Some MINIs were equipped with additional steering systems to allow a specialist to control the car from a position outside the frame while the actor pretended to drive it. Others were modified to withstand jumps and impacts, with adjustments to the suspension and other changes made for action scenes. A repair team was also on standby to take care of the fleet, as the cars suffered frequent damage during filming.

A large part of the appeal of The Italian Job lay in the fact that its scenes didn’t rely solely on digital effects. The MINIs actually drove down stairs into the subway, traveled through tunnels, and appeared in some of the film’s most memorable chase sequences. F. Gary Gray himself later explained that they used three electric MINIs because Los Angeles didn’t allow cars with internal combustion engines in the tunnels.

The actors also had considerably more driving involvement than might seem. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Jason Statham spent several weeks training to handle most of the driving scenes. According to MINI, Theron stood out especially, managing to perform a 180-degree U-turn in a very tight space. Wahlberg, on the other hand, admitted that the more powerful MINI was so intense that he even felt dizzy during one of the sessions.

The interesting thing is that those three electric MINIs appeared many years before MINI had an actual production electric car. In 2008, the brand introduced the MINI E, a pilot project for which around 600 units were built for real-world testing. BMW used this program to gather information on how an electric car performed in daily use, as well as on aspects such as charging and batteries.

The MINI E was a much more serious project than the three conversions in The Italian Job. It featured an electric motor of 150 kW and a range of up to 250 kilometers, with the units being used in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. This program was part of BMW Group’s electrification efforts that later led to other projects as well.

But even more waiting was required before the technology made its way to a production MINI. The MINI Cooper SE began production in 2019, with the first units hitting the market in 2020. It became the brand’s first production model with purely electric propulsion, offering 135 kW (184 hp) and an approved range of between 235 and 270 kilometers depending on the version and testing cycle.

Looking at it from a distance, it’s quite interesting that one of the first appearances of an electric MINI didn’t take place at a car show or as part of a BMW research project, but rather while descending stairs toward the Los Angeles subway to escape the police. In 2003, no one could buy an electric MINI, yet three units were already doing exactly what we associate with any electric vehicle today: moving around enclosed areas without emitting exhaust fumes.

The Italian Job eventually turned those MINIs into true cinematic icons. And almost two decades before the Cooper SE reached dealerships, three units created exclusively for a movie had already shown that the small MINI could also run on electricity.