2020 Mini Electric Review: Short On Range, Long On Fun

Mini believes that the main customer demographic for the upcoming Electric version of its classic Cooper are people who already have another car in their garage. That’s something Mini of the Americas vice president Michael Peyton made clear in a statement when the company started taking orders for the EV a little over a month ago.

“On the rational side, 80 percent of all Mini households own two or more cars, and with an accessible price, the Mini Electric is a perfect complement in offering more customers attainable, emission-free driving,” he said.

With that in mind, driving the upcoming Mini Cooper Electric in Miami last week made more sense than it would have otherwise, since I could put the EV into the context that the car deserves to be put into.

Let’s start with the looks. It will be a challenge to make your Mini Electric to stand out in a fleet of Minis, as the plug-in version looks an awful lot like the ones that burn gasoline. Mini says the EV has ” discreet differentiations,” like the aerodynamic wheels that feature a clever +/- symbol, well-suited for an EV. And the yellow side mirrors familiar to anyone who remembers the original electric Mini, the Mini E, from a little over a decade ago, are still around. There’s also a faint electric plug symbol on the charge port cover – which is conveniently located exactly where the gas tank cover is found on a gas-powered Mini, which again saves costs – but other than those items, there’s not much to tell you this thing moves on electrons.

And move it does. This isn’t a screamer, but the motor does offer 184 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough to feel confident you can outspin most normal cars from a stop light thanks to the Mini Electric’s 0-37 mph time of 3.9 seconds from the instant torque. Sure, a Ludicrous Mode Tesla can get up to over 60 mph in that time, but that’s not really a fair comparison. The Mini Electric’s zero-to-62 mph time is 7.3 seconds, the same as it takes the standard Mini Cooper to go from zero to 60 mph. The gas-powered Mini Cooper S can do 0-60 in 6.5 seconds, while the John Cooper Works Hardtop does this 5.9 seconds.

The interior is classic Mini, with big, noticeable buttons all within easy reach of the driver. A round light above the infotainment screen flashes colors to convey information (like, emergency stopping assistance applied, as if the brakes themselves were not enough), and the navigation map includes charge points. Why it also still shows gas stations is an oversight I hope the engineers get around to fixing either before the car is actually released or for the next version. Who wants to be reminded of gas stations while driving an EV? 

Driving around Miami, I never felt like the Mini Electric had trouble keeping up with the, um, interesting local drivers. Even on the highway, rushing to get back to the airport on time, the Mini Electric proved itself a worthy performer, zipping confidently along the express lanes and in and out of traffic. The car was absolutely fine on the mostly straight roads of southern Florida, but the EV’s low center of gravity should make it fun where there are curves as well.

The best feature, for my money, is the adjustable regenerative brake levels. I always appreciate EVs that let the driver choose if they want to do the one-pedal-driving thing or not. In the Mini Electric, BMW has managed to get this balance just about completely right. When using strong regen, the car brakes quickly but not too harshly. And on the highway, when you’re cruising at 65 or 70 mph, the strong regen is smart enough to not clamp down and throw you into your seatbelt. When you turn the strong regen off, the Mini Electric coasts smoothly to a stop if you have enough space to do so. In short, it’s great.

The new Mini Electric uses a number of powertrain components taken directly from the BMW i3. The 135-kW motor is the exact same part, for example, and the battery has the same energy capacity as some versions of the i3, but is shaped differently to fit precisely under the Mini Cooper’s floor and rear seats, according to Mini’s Michael Krauss. The 2020 Mini Electric uses a 32.6-kWh lithium-ion battery has a usable capacity of 28.9-kWh.

All of that repurposing helped make the Mini Cooper SE a bargain in the new electric vehicle category. Starting at just $29,900 (plus $850 in destination and handling charges), the electric Mini will be available in early March 2020.

All of this sounds good, right, but there’s a catch. Mini has given its new EV a paltry range of just 110 miles, just barely more than the 100-mile-range that the Mini E had back in 2008. While that may not seem like much of an improvement, there are two ways to prove that it, in fact, is.

First is the cost, and while Mini didn’t say exactly how much cheaper this one is to build than the original Mini E, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that a decade’s worth of EV R&D with the ActiveE and BMW i3 and i8 projects have led to breakthroughs. We can at least compare the cost to the new Mini Electric to the $850-a-month lease price for the Mini E back a decade ago.

Second, we can look at the packaging. The original Mini E did not have rear seats, because that’s where the engineers had to put the battery. The new Mini Electric has the same cramped rear seating area of other Minis, but this is an unquestioned improvement.

Charging speeds have also improved. The new Mini Electric can charge from zero to 80 percent charge in 35 minutes from a 50 kW DC Fast Charger, or going all the way from zero to 100 percent full in 4.2 hours using a 7.4 kW Mini Wallbox (i.e., branded Level 2 charger).

As of late December, Mini had already heard from 15,000 “hand-raisers” who said they wanted to buy one of these electric Minis, and if that kind of enthusiasm continues throughout January and on into February, things are looking up for the first year of Mini Electric sales. The torque-y fun they’ll feel behind the wheel should be enough to get the EV-curious to give the Mini Electric a solid look.