Electric Mini Cooper
The all-electric 2020 Mini Cooper SE will cost $29,900 in the U.S. when it goes on sale in early March 2020. That price is before any federal or local tax incentives kick in but without Mini’s $850 destination and handling fee.
The Mini EV’s starting MSRP is just a hair under the starting price of the 2019 Nissan Leaf, which is $29,990, and well under the lowest price for a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV, which is $36,620.
What the two-door Mini Cooper SE will have that no other electric vehicles for sale here do is the Mini style. The Mini Cooper SE looks just about identical to the Mini Hardtop 2 Door, which was launched in 2014. The exterior changes are basically a .7-inch height bump to make room for the floor-mounted battery packs, badges and a closed grille that offers improved aerodynamics. There’s also an improved HVAC heat pump.
As for numbers and things that can be compared, the Mini Cooper SE’s electric motor will produce 181 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque, which will be good for a 6.9-second 0-60 mile-per-hour time and a top speed of 93 mph. There’s an on-board charger that’s rates at 7.4 kW and the car can accept DC Fast Charging using SAE Combo coupling at up to 50 kW.
Mini says the lithium-ion battery in its EV will get between 146 and 167 miles on the European scale, which is usually higher than the EPA’s numbers. Those are not yet available for the 2020 Mini Cooper SE.
Standard features that will come with the 2020 Mini Cooper SE include a navigation system, a leather-covered steering wheel, keyless entry, Mini’s Active Driving Assistant with forward collision warning and heated front seats.
Mini says what the Mini Cooper SE means for the electrification of the auto industry is that it has Mini’s mission front of mind. The EV, “harkens back to the mission of the very first Mini developed by Sir Alec Issigonis in 1959 – to develop a creative solution for a highly efficient car with a small footprint that was fun to drive, and accessible to the masses,” the company says.
In press materials, Mini has called the Cooper SE “the first purely electric premium small car,” but that’s tough to call true. For one thing, small is relative. Second, Mini itself has offered EVs before. The Mini Cooper SE is just the latest of Mini’s plug-in vehicles, which started with the all-electric Mini E test program back in 2009 and 2010. Mini also sells the Mini Cooper S E Countryman All4 plug-in hybrid. That model starts at $36,000.
