Who Makes Mini Cooper Cars And Where Are They Built?

For movie lovers from multiple generations, the Mini Cooper name conjures images of powerful, pint-sized vehicles engaged in high speed chases across England and various other cities on the European continent. These English automobiles have been prominently featured in some of the most iconic car chase scenes of all time, in high-octane films like 1969's "The Italian Job"  and its 2003 remake, as well as "The Bourne Identity." Coopers were also front and center in beloved comedies like "Austin Powers in Goldmember" and of course "Mr. Bean." 

Given the decidedly English culture of most of those offerings — save for "Bourne" and "The Italian Job" remake — it's fitting that a vehicle of English origin should play such a vital role in the action, particularly one so well-suited to traversing smaller European streets. However despite those origins, the Mini brand is not quite as English now as it was when the vehicles first took to the streets in 1959. That first generation of Cooper came via the British Motor Corporation, with that manufacturer and various successors keeping the build in production via facilities in England over the ensuing decades.

However, the Mini brand endured a notable ownership change in the year 1994, when BMW purchased Mini's parent company, Rover Group. It wasn't until 2000 that we saw the first BMW-produced Mini vehicle, but ever since then, the German manufacturer has continued to crank out Minis. Where does production of Mini vehicles actually happen, though? 

Mini Cars have been manufactured in England since the British Motor Company first put them into production. Those late 1950s models, and most Minis manufactured in the early days rolled out of a production facility located in Cowley, England, which is just outside of Oxford. Given the location of that manufacturing plant, it's not surprising that Oxford became the official home of Mini when it became a wholly independent company in 1969. 

Mini continues to manufacture many of its vehicles in that Oxford facility to this very day, including its three-door and five-door models, as well as the brand's convertible and Clubman builds. In fact, the facility is apparently cranking out as many as 1,000 vehicles every day, utilizing steel panels made in nearby Swindon, England. BMW also used the VDL Nedcar plant in Born, Netherlands for production of its Minis in 2016. However, that plant officially shuttered earlier this year, with the Mini Cabrio being the last vehicle ever made there. 

It would seem that the VDL Nedcar closure did not end the production of Mini Cooper's outside of England. Not willing to force the Oxford facility to shoulder Cooper production on its own, BMW instead opted to begin manufacturing some the vehicles at home in Germany as well in 2023, and that includes the not-so-mini 2025 Cooper Countryman which SlashGear reviewed. Mini production in Germany will likely only continue to grow in the years to come.