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According to The Drive citing a tweet from Drivin’ Theater Club, the film crew had to convert the Minis because the city of Los Angeles wouldn’t allow any exhaust fumes in the metro tunnels. In director F. Gary Gray’s on words:
“They wouldn’t allow us to shoot in the tunnels with cars that had combustion engines. So I said, ‘Okay, great, we’ll just get electric Minis and that’ll be fine.’ We called BMW and they said there aren’t any electric Minis, they don’t exist.”
This is not where the Mini-related peculiarities end for The Italian Job. All in all, 32 Minis were allegedly used throughout the shooting of the movie, including one that had two steering wheels so the stunt driver could do this thing while the actor performed in front of the camera.
Also, the red Mini Cooper driven by Stella Bridger (Charlize Theron) was a nod back to the Mini Coopers featured in the 1969 The Italian Job.
On top of this, Jason Statham got tuition from British former F1 champion Damon Hill outside of the compulsory stunt driving course every actor had to go through. Oh, and the main actors did most of the stunt driving themselves, including the down-the-stairs driving in the LA Metro.
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