New MINI Cooper Electric Review: The most charming car on sale?

The new MINI Cooper Electric takes over from a car that was fun yet flawed. To address criticisms of the previous model, the latest MINI has a substantially greater range, which allows it to stand comparison with rivals such as the Volkswagen ID.3, Peugeot e-208 and Cupra Born.

In this review, Vicky Parrott tests the entry-level Cooper E, which is priced from £30,000 and can cover a claimed 190 miles on a full charge. For those needing more range, MINI also offers a Cooper SE with a bigger battery, a price of £34,500, and an official claimed range of 250 miles from a charge.

Clearly the MINI is not the biggest electric car on sale, but it might just be the most charming on account of its neat styling, smart interior and polished driving dynamics. Would you consider buying one?

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#cargurusUK #minielectric

[Nick-ctww]

I'm sorry but £30k for a electric mini is still way to expensive for most folk. 5 years ago a basic golf was £20k better built and 50% larger.

[moonshine]

Just when did 30k for a small car become affordable?

[martinedwards]

I suspect the real world range on a winter's day would be around 150 miles once the heater is on, which, in my opinion, is way too low. It's not really a long-range crusier.

[timoliver]

No short cut to inhibit speed sign recognition and lane departure warning - yes there is. Go to Driver Assistance in the vehicle settings, safety and warnings click and hold the lane departure warning icon and you get a pop up asking if you want to make a short cut. Then go into the Driving section and go to speed limit exceeded and do the same to create a short cut.
Once the short cuts are created you have direct access to them from the key on the oblong key pad showing a car with 3 horizontal line - tap the favourites key and you big screen shows all the short cuts. Yes I agree it’s a convoluted way to get to the functions to inhibit them - some cars now have a dedicated button on the dash now to disable both functions pity BMW has gone down the switch and buttonless dash route though. I’ve had my Counttyman S E with exactly the same system since the first week of April and it’s now first thing I do after turning on the power “key” thingy

[VSS]

The old interior was far better in my opinion. They have just tried to reduce production costs with this interior.

[sevensixtysteve]

I like the direction BMW have gone with the new model - the cleaned up styling is a big improvement over the increasingly fraught surfacing of the previous gen. I also like that the 5 door has been deleted - it always looked awful to me. Conceptually, the interior is simpler but some design choices like having a toggle switch for 'experiences' rather than something useful like cabin temperature seems crass. Some of the interior materials and mouldings look cheap to. It's a shame then that the simpler design approach hasn't really paid off on the price as it's expensive for a small car with small battery & a small range that's made in China. £25K feels more right and so it will be interesting to see how it fares against cars like the Renault 5 when that hits the showrooms.

[trader]

£5K more gets you a Tesla Model 3, 68 miles more range than the Cooper SE, and a second faster to 60 mph, more space and access to the Tesla super charger network....

[Siriliu]

Affordable? Are people so far out of touch with the way things are at the moment?

[jbaron]

Good video... The audio levels jumped about a bit though.

[finnwindu]

Wait the 0-60 time is over 6 seconds long? How is it even possible for an all electric car to be that slow?

[Dreador.]

Hmm so slower than the older model, and range is only a bit more as outgoing gave more than claimed 120 where this is much lower 140 - and that back end is erm ugly and nothing like mini styling.

Renault 5 seems a better option on face of it

[sy]

The Mini E listing price is only 16k Pounds in China, after applying additional 1.3k electric auto subsidy reduction, brings the final price down to 15.7k with 3 years interest-free financing plan. On top of all that, there is comprehensive and cheap charging facility countrywide (11p per kWh fast charging offered by China national grid).

[seanweirdbeard]

Looks goot!
Only small ev I would consider, am booked in for a test drive...

[markymarkreviews]

Test drove the SE a few weeks back. Looked cool as Sport pack with JCW parts on it. But a touch too much po-go'ing ride, too much torque steer, (some people say it's "fun", but i don't see it that way) not very efficient so real world range was poor overall and yes way too expensive for what you get. Just not good enough unless they discount++

[masonandmotors]

As a Mini enthusiast (original and new) I like what they've done. Especially making the interior more like original Mini. I'm not sure I'll ever get on board with the rear light clusters though. They don't match the rest of the car. On a side note, I don't think the video has been colour graded properly. It's very over exposed and blown out.

[herme]

I was quite excited about this car until I saw the dinner plate on the dash

[shaywhelan]

No, I don't like that. It's too smooth, or flush looking at the front, and that rear looks unbalanced

[OldCodeMonkey]

Not sure why you wouldn't buy a Smart #1 instead, more space, more range, more equipment as standard, faster charging, better performance and rear wheel drive. Plus 4 doors not 2.

[edmundli]

Is it better than the previous electric? The interior seemed so bland without chrome toggle switches, and upholstery do not have the leather options.

[bryanduncan]

The slight 🐘 in the room, is the fact that this is a GWM Ora 03 underneath, indeed they are built in the same factory in