On February 1, 2022, Stefanie Wurst will take over the management of the MINI brand. Your predecessor, Bernd Körber, will be in charge of BMW product management and the Connected Company. The strategic further development of the British premium brand with a focus on new markets and target groups as well as electromobility and digitization will be consistently continued.
The BMW Group announces a change in leadership of the MINI brand. Stefanie Wurst will take over management of the British premium brand on February 1, 2022. She succeeds Bernd Körber, who has held this position since April 2019 and will now also be responsible for BMW product management and the Connected Company on February 1, 2022.
Stefanie Wurst previously worked as head of the BMW Group sales company in the Netherlands since September 2018. Numerous sustainability issues were actively promoted there under her leadership. Among other things, she successfully initiated the “Electric City Drive”, which became a pilot project for the now around 100 BMW eDrive Zones in Europe, with which drivers of plug-in hybrid models are supported in using the purely electric driving mode in inner-city areas. “Sustainability is a holistic task and an attitude that everyone feels obliged to,” says Stefanie Wurst. The share of electrified models in total sales by the BMW Group Netherlands increased to a new record of 37 percent in 2021. At the same time, 21.5 percent of all new registrations of the MINI brand in the Netherlands in the past year were for the all-electric MINI Cooper SE (combined power consumption: 17.6 – 15.2 kWh/100 km according to WLTP, combined CO2 emissions: 0 g/ kilometers).
At MINI, too, this approach is expressed in an approach that considers sustainability along the entire value chain, from the extraction of raw materials through production and operation of the vehicle to subsequent recycling. MINI is making great strides in expanding electromobility. In 2021, global sales of the all-electric MINI Cooper SE almost doubled. By the early 2030s, MINI will complete the transition to a fully electrified brand.
In addition, Stefanie Wurst, at the helm of the MINI brand, will contribute her experience in the field of holistic corporate management in the interaction of all disciplines and together with our retail partners. From 2014 to 2018, the graduate economist was responsible for BMW’s marketing on the German automotive market. During this period, both the brand strength in general and the perception of innovation of the BMW brand, including the dimension of sustainability, increased. Before joining the BMW Group, she held various management positions internationally, including in Singapore for the Asian market.
In her new function, she succeeds Bernd Körber, under whose direction the future strategy of the MINI brand was developed. Among other things, it includes a realignment of the product range, which, in addition to additional models with electrified drives, also includes new offers in the crossover and premium compact segments. The next generation of the MINI Countryman will roll off the assembly line at the BMW Group plant in Leipzig as early as 2023 – with both conventional and electrified drives. In addition, MINI is stepping up its involvement in the Chinese automobile market – including the start of local production. Production of a new generation of purely electrically powered models from the brand will also begin there in 2023. MINI is thus taking another step on the way to becoming a fully electric brand.
A central element of the realignment of the MINI brand image is the emphasis on diversity, tolerance, cosmopolitanism, optimism and enthusiasm for new things, which is expressed by the current campaign motto BIGLOVE. The brand shares the positive emotionality with the MINI community, in which individuality and a sense of community are harmoniously combined. Innovations in the field of digitization and networking also contribute to the future viability of the brand. This not only strengthens the relationship between the customer and the vehicle, but also the connection between the brand and the global MINI community. With the strategic setting of the course in the areas of product, brand and customer as well as technology and production, MINI has a solid basis for sustainable, profitable growth of the brand.
