Tesla's newest challenger in the mass-market electric-car segment is the $38,000 MINI Cooper Electric. I drove it to see if the style legend could take on the future.
My 2020 MINI Cooper SE arrived in a "White Silver Metallic" paint job. Price? $37,780. But the base was $29,900, with a $7,000 "Iconic" trim package.
Now, because this MINI has gone electric, the trim elements are a flashy neon yellow. Some might not care for the choice, but it does continue MINI's history of daring design cues.
From a distance, you wouldn't know that this MINI Cooper had an electric motor and batteries under the hood.
It's an open question whether that matters. Some electric cars advertise their electric-ness, but the MINI Electric wants to look like a MINI and to capitalize on the design's considerable appeal.
The hood scoop does provide some airflow to the electric tech.
The headlights are justifiably famous.
They're LED units that can literally beam themselves around corners.
Neon-yellow side-view mirrors!
The electric call-outs are both modest and not-so-modest.
The 17-inch wheels are a two-tone, offbeat design that's unique to the MINI Electric.
From the rear, the MINI Electric presents a familiar MINI Cooper profile.
It's a hatchback two-door, which is versatile, but not without some limits.
The E badging is a bit more bold than what's on the flanks.
Note the Union Jack tail lights!
For cargo capacity, you do have to drop the rear seats to have enough space for anything beyond low-key shopping trips.
When the rear seats are up, the cargo area is a mere 7.5 cubic feet.
Let's pop the hood!
The drivetrain consists of a 33-kilowatt-hour, lithium-ion battery, paired with a 135 kWh motor that generates 181 horsepower with 207 pound-feet of torque.
The transmission is a one-speed unit, managed with this straightforward toggle.
The car comes with a trickle-charge onboard cable (which I didn't wind up using); it stows in a pack under the cargo area. You could plug into a standard wall outlet and restore a full charge overnight.
However, I used ChargePoint's network to recharge the MINI at Level 2.
Simple: plug the vehicle in ...
... after authorizing a ChargePoint account.
MINI provided me with a fob card to use for recharging. But I also have my own ChargePoint account.
If the MINI is completely drained, the battery could come back to a full charge at Level 2 in about six hours, in my testing. I was looking at going from about 40% to 100% in four hours. Many owners might wasn't to install Level 2, 240-volt charging units at their homes.
Inside, the MINI Electric combines premium materials with snazzy design. My tester's interior was "Chesterfield Satellite Gray" leather, with an anthracite headliner and some MINI-Electric-specific elements. The front seats on my tester were heated.
The quilting is nice, but the rear seats are, in a word, cramped.
Overall, however, the MINI Electric's interior is among the most luxurious I've experienced on an electric car.
The multifunction steering wheel is sporty and leather-wrapped ...
... With another shout-out to MINI's British heritage.
The interior appointments are simultaneously stylish and high-tech.
The instrument cluster moves with the adjustable steering column and is pretty small. It displays battery charge, energy usage, and speed.
The aviation-style switches are a MINI staple.
And the stop-start switch gets the neon-yellow treatment.
A few more switches up above.
The head-up display is useful, but it took me a week to figure out how to move the information higher.
I had to consult the PRINTED owner's manual, which is one of the nicest I've laid my hands on in a while! (You have to delve into one of the infotainment systems sub-menus to adjust the head-up display.)
The key fob is nothing fancy, but it is round, echoing a MINI design theme.
A theme that's found most prominently on the infotainment display. The MINI system is undergirded by BMW's iDrive tech. Bluetooth pairing is easy, and there's USB device connectivity, along with GPS navigation.
You do have to deal with a lot of submenus, which can be irritating. But that's life with iDrive.
It can be operated using this knob-and-buttons interface on the console between the front seats.
The MINI Electric has Green+, Green, Mid, and Sport modes.
Green+ permits some notable regenerative braking that lets the driver avoid the brake pedal almost altogether — single-pedal driving. Green mode dials that back and frees up a bit more performance.
Sport is the most fun. The MINI Electric can dash from 0-60 mph in about six seconds, so it isn't exactly fast by the clock — but the immediate torque makes it feel quick. I struggled with this car like no other to keep at the legal speed limit on the highway.
A wireless charge port is hidden beneath the arm rest.
So what's the verdict?
Apologies for the downpour selfie! It was raining buckets when I recharged the MINI Electric near our suburban New Jersey test center.
I just loved this car. True, for the "modern" EV customer, the range is probably a dealbreaker. Tesla can give you more than twice the MINI Electric's range. So can numerous other offerings in the markets.
But for me, the MINI Electric is in many ways an ideal package for my lifestyle in the 'burbs. It's fun to drive, it can be recharged overnight, it has enough cargo space to deal with everyday life, and the price is appealing. Plus, this MINI is eligible for a full, $7,500 federal EV tax credit. That would knock my purchase price for my tester down to about $30,000.
I know from experience that pushing my luck with 110-miles of range would be a bad idea. so I'd want to keep the MINI Electric fully juiced, even if all I had planned were a jaunt to New York City, which is about 20 miles away.
So if you were basically a commuter, in need of a weekend/errand-mobile, the MINI Electric is perfect, and a blast to drive. Not kidding! I scrupulously adhere to speed limits, but the MINI Electric is so quick at speed that I had a tough time driving 55. I just wanted to punch it endlessly and dart around like a heat-seeking missile.
EVs often have that go-kart quality, but the MINI Electric has it with a MINI platform underneath — meaning that this is among the most solidly tossable EVs on the market. It's better than the Tesla Model 3 in some ways, and a big move up from the Chevy Bolt or the Nissan Leaf.
Look, you expect a MINI to deliver when it comes to aggressive motoring. That's more important, for some, than the brand's cheerful, anglophile style — it is for me.
And that's where the MINI Electric decisively overcomes its limitations. It's the MINI of EVs. and although you can't really take in on a road trip, you can chase thrills doing just about anything else.
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