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Used electric cars are selling faster than petrol and hybrid models
Belgian staffing firm Accent orders 500 electric MINIs in brand's largest fleet deal
Accent, the staffing arm of House of HR, has placed an order for 500 fully electric MINI vehicles, the largest single order for electric cars MINI has ever recorded. The fleet will be delivered in phases and used by employees of Accent and its sister companies Nowjobs and CTRL-F across Belgium.
By Edward Beaumont · 3 min read
Accent, the Belgian staffing arm of House of HR, has placed an order for 500 fully electric MINI vehicles, marking the largest single order for electric cars in MINI's history. The vehicles will be delivered in phases over the coming weeks and months and will be used by employees of Accent and its sister companies Nowjobs and CTRL-F.
The order spans MINI's current electric line-up: the MINI Cooper, the MINI Aceman SUV, and the MINI Countryman SE, which shares its platform with the BMW X1. Splitting the fleet across three models allows Accent to match specific vehicles to specific roles, since a recruiter driving between local offices has different needs than a manager covering the whole country. The deal was brokered through Belgian dealer group Dejonckheere.
“Mobility plays a crucial role in an organization that connects people, businesses, and opportunities every day,” said Gabriel Goffoy, Head of MINI Belux, adding that the agreement was months in the making. Accent CEO Stijn Vandervorst framed the choice around the company's Belgium-wide network of local offices: he wanted a European-built brand that would let employees “travel smoothly, pleasantly, and proudly” to meet clients and candidates across the country.
Size aside, the order is notable for what it says about MINI's electric strategy. The brand currently sells the Cooper and Aceman alongside combustion and plug-in hybrid variants, but the electric versions are taking on growing importance, and Accent's fleet is entirely electric. Production is split geographically: the electric Cooper and Aceman are built on a platform developed jointly with China's Great Wall Motor, while the electric Countryman comes from BMW's plant in Leipzig, Germany. That means a single fleet order like this one draws on two different manufacturing bases and, in the Countryman's case, a different underlying technical concept than its Cooper and Aceman stablemates.
For MINI, a 500-car order from a single fleet customer is also a signal that the brand's appeal extends past private buyers who want a small, expressive car for themselves. Fleet and corporate business has traditionally been a smaller part of MINI's volume than it is for larger BMW models, so a deal of this scale — and one built entirely around electric variants — points to fleet demand catching up with the brand's broader push toward electrification.
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