MINI Cooper Electric Review (2024-present)
MINI Mini cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Fun to drive
Effortlessly stylish
Properly desirable
Cons
Rather firm ride
Infotainment can be confusing to use
Limited practicality
The CarGurus verdict
The electric MINI Cooper is a fun, likeable small car, and with this new generation, it’s gained a useful range and even more advanced interface. The ride comfort really might be too much of a compromise for some, and you won’t want to sit in the back seats for long.
But it is a very appealing blend of premium finish, smart retro looks, big-car tech, efficient running costs and scrappy, engaging handling. It’s not the most sensible option at the price, but that’s kind of the whole point of the MINI, which is very much a ‘want one’ car. And we do want one. Rather a lot, actually.
What is the MINI Cooper?
This is the latest generation of the popular MINI Cooper – the dinky, fashionable and fun small hatchback that’s proven for more than two decades, now, that people are happy to pay big money for a small car provided it’s premium and desirable enough.
The original Mini was around from 1959, and is one of the most iconic cars ever built, lending its plucky character and plenty of design cues to the modern MINI hatch (and the whole MINI brand) that has thrived under BMW ownership since 2001.
Now, we’re onto this new fourth generation of BMW’s modern MINI hatchback, which sticks to a very similar recipe of cute, super-desirable looks, zippy handling, supermini proportions and big-car tech. It’s more premium than ever, and you can have it with three-cylinder or four-cylinder turbo petrol engines that look to balance onerous power with strong fuel economy (although it’s an automatic gearbox only these days, as there’s no manual gearbox option), or with electric powertrains. There’s also a John Cooper Works (often abbreviated to JCW) hot hatch version in the, er, works, too.
Another change is that the three-door hatch is now called the MINI Cooper. Doesn’t matter if it’s petrol or electric, entry-level or top-spec; if you’re buying a three-door MINI hatchback, you’re buying a MINI Cooper.
Here, we’ll focus on the electric MINI Cooper E and MINI Cooper SE, but we’ll bring you a separate CarGurus review of the petrol MINI hatchback, too.
The previous generation electric MINI was great fun, but the small battery and short driving range put a lot of buyers off. With this new electric MINI – which gets a completely new platform and exterior design - there’s a choice of two batteries. The Cooper E gets a 36.6kWh battery for a WLTP range of 190 miles, while the Cooper SE gets more power and a bigger 49.2kWh battery for a WLTP range of up to 250 miles. That’s a big jump in range and battery efficiency, despite this new MINI actually remaining much the same size (a fraction smaller, in fact) and price as its predecessor. That’s the sort of progress we want to see!
How practical is it?
The driving position and general sense of material quality has improved quite a bit for this Mk4 MINI hatchback. You can sit very low if you wish, but there’s enough seat- and wheel adjustment to make even taller drivers feel comfortable, and visibility is good, too. You don’t even feel too squashed together with your passenger, so it’s fair to say that the little MINI doesn’t feel too little up front, and you’ll be perfectly happy to do a lot of miles with another passenger.
Mind you, the MINI has followed a current trend – as per the Tesla Model 3 and Volvo EX30 - for not having a speed readout behind the steering wheel. Instead, the speed and all other vital driver information is shown on the top of the huge, dinner-plate-sized central readout. Some may be fine with that, but we’d say that the optional head-up display behind the steering wheel is an essential feature. You’ll need to go for the Level 1 option pack to get it, which costs £2,000 but does also include keyless entry, folding side mirrors, adaptive LED headlights and heated seats, making it reasonable value.
Boot space isn’t bad for a 3.86m-long small car. The 210 litres of boot space you get includes some underfloor storage for the charging cables, and the boot is more than spacious enough for a couple of cabin bags or a decent-size grocery shop. You can drop the seats in a 60/40 split for up to 800 litres of space, too.
As for rear passenger space, MINI says that there’s more space in the back seats than before. That may well be the case, but it’s still pretty tight back there for legroom, so an adult isn’t going to want to spend much time there, while kids will likely tolerate it just fine. Kids will find it easier to get in, too; the electric MINI is three-door only, and while the front seat slides and folds forwards easily, you still need to be fairly dexterous to fold yourself through the gap and into the rear seats.
There will be no five-door electric MINI Cooper, but there’s always the electric MINI Aceman and MINI Countryman if you need a more family friendly electric car and like MINI’s style, or you could check out five-door alternatives like the Peugeot e-208, Volvo EX30, Ora 03, Smart #1, Vauxhall Mokka-e and Audi A1 Sportback (although that last one doesn’t have an electric option).
What’s it like to drive?
Well, it’s certainly good fun. We drove the standard MINI Cooper E, which gets a 181bhp electric motor on the front wheels, and will do 0-62mph in 7.3sec. The Cooper SE ups that to 215bhp, for a 0-62mph of 6.7 seconds, but even the lowlier Cooper E feels sporty and enthusiastic. There’s plenty of acceleration, and the steering is quite heavy – or very heavy if you select Sport mode – so it feels responsive and keen when you go into a corner. That trademark ‘go-kart’ feel is there, even if you’re just negotiating a roundabout at moderate speeds.
What the MINI does struggle with, however, is getting its power down through those front wheels. Both the MINI Cooper E and SE are front-wheel drive, and if you accelerate with some gusto – especially if you’ve got some angle on the wheels as you’re coming out of a corner – they struggle to cope with all the torque and it makes the steering wheel writhe around in your hands. Some drivers might actually like that scrappy, quite intense aspect of the MINI’s handling, but most people will probably just find it annoying as the car can weave about a bit while you fight the steering wheel.
The other issue is the ride comfort. The MINI has always been pitched as an enthusiastic, fun car to drive, and the compromise is that it’s also always been quite firm and bouncy when it comes to ride comfort. You really notice coarse road surfaces, and it’ll bump firmly into potholes and the like. It’s damped well enough, but some might find the MINI a bit too bumpy for their liking.
As an aside, the petrol-powered new MINI Cooper actually sits on the old platform that was used by the third-generation car (even though it looks almost identical to the electric MINI with its all-new platform), and can be optioned with adaptive dampers. Sadly, the electric MINI Cooper E and Cooper SE aren’t available with adaptive suspension.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
You really can’t miss the enormous OLED infotainment screen in the MINI. This is one of the first cars to get OLED (organic LED) screen technology, and it does deliver brilliantly crisp graphics. Whether you like the sheer size and ‘in yer face’ attitude of the round screen (a MINI brand trademark and a nod to the circular, central speedo of the original, Alec Issigonis-designed 20th century Mini) will be a matter of personal taste.
It's not the easiest touchscreen infotainment system to use, so you’ll need some time to familiarise yourself, but the key features are fairly easy to find and control, and the screen responds quickly enough. You get satnav with charger search function (and it’ll work out your best charging stops and predicted time for charging on the route, too), as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
As we’ve mentioned, you don’t get a speed readout behind the wheel but you can add a head-up display. Other optional tech highlights include a semi-autonomous Drive Assist system, and a semi-autonomous park assist program that even learns how you like to park in your regular spots. It’ll learn if you like to reverse onto your driveway, for instance.
Standard equipment isn’t bad. Once you’ve decided which version of the electric MINI you want – Cooper E or Cooper SE – you then decide whether which trim level you want out of entry-level Classic, or there’s Sport and Exclusive that mostly add style extras. Even the MINI Cooper Classic gets LED headlights, 16-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control, leatherette upholstery and a reversing camera.
We’d say that the Level 1 Pack is an essential addition, chiefly as it adds the head-up display so that you have the speed readout directly behind the steering wheel, but it also adds heated seats, keyless entry and adaptive Matrix headlights, so it’s definitely worth adding.
The Level 2 pack adds all of that, plus the semi-autonomous drive mode, panoramic glass sunroof and Harman Kardon sound system.
MINI Cooper Electric running costs
The MINI isn’t cheap but it’s also fairly reasonably priced in the context of similar electric cars. Yes, there are more practical and longer-range electric vehicles at the same circa £30,000 to £38,000 price including the MG4, Volvo EX30, Volkswagen ID.3 and many more, but the MINI is classy inside, desirable and great fun, so it’s not hard to see why it’s been so successful. Mind you, the Fiat 500e is arguably a closer rival, being a small, stylish electric car: and that’s less practical and not a whole lot cheaper, so the MINI is comparably decent value. The forthcoming electric Renault 5 could give the MINI hatch something to worry about in the style and value stakes, but we’ll have to wait and see.
As for real-world range, it’s safe to expect around 180 to 230 miles of range from the Cooper SE, or more like 120 to 170 miles in the Cooper E. If you’re charging mostly at home on a standard domestic electricity tariff, expect mileage costs of around 7p per mile, or you can halve that if you use cheaper off-peak tariffs.
MINI Cooper Electric reliability
The MINI is too new for any reliability data to be available, especially as the new electric MINI has a totally new platform. For now, it’s also being built in China but production is being moved to the Oxford plant in the UK from 2026, which is great news for this British marque.
We’ll have to wait and see for any solid reliability data, but MINI did very well in the 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey, where the brand as a whole was ranked third out of 32 brands for the reliability of cars up to five years old. A three-year, unlimited-mile warranty is standard, and includes three years of roadside assistance. The lithium-ion NMC battery is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles.
- The Cooper SE isn’t just faster on the road, it’s faster at the chargers, too. This bigger-battery MINI has peak charging speeds of 95kW, while the Cooper E makes do with 70kW. Both will manage an 80% top-up in around 30 minutes, while a full charge at home will take six hours for the Cooper E, and around eight hours for the Cooper SE.
- The charging port for the MINI is on the nose of the car, which can be annoying as it means you have to drive forwards into a charging bay. It uses CCS and Type 2 sockets, which are compatible with almost all public charging stations in the UK and western Europe.
- There are some real quirks to the MINI, such as the power switch, which is a fixed, rotary toggle just below the screen. There’s a button next to that called ‘Experiences’, and if you use this then the car changes the design of the touchscreen, the ambient lighting and the synthesised engine noise to match the experience that you choose. These can vary from understated, modern settings with no ‘engine noise’ at all, through to a classic mode that gives the screen a design inspired by the original, classic MINI, and noise also inspired by the classic MINI. Sport begins with the sound of someone cheering, and then has a sonorous engine noise complete with mimicked pops and crackles.
- If you want the best value: Provided you can live with the 190-mile WLTP range, go for the entry-level Cooper E Classic, but add the Level 1 pack. You’ll have a really well equipped car, for a pretty reasonable cash price. Step up to the SE if you need the extra range. You also only get metallic silver as the standard colour, so you might want to dig deep for the £550 you’ll need to add a colour with a bit more attitude, such as the bright, ‘Sunnyside Yellow’.
- If you want the best company car: As above, really, but it’s probably worth going for the Cooper SE as the additional cost in Benefit-in-Kind tax will be minimal, yet the additional range and charging performance could be really useful.
- If you want the best high-mileage commuter: Go for the Cooper SE, but add the Level 2 pack as you’ll benefit from the improved semi-autonomous drive systems, a better sound system and a smarter interior.
- If you want the best family car: Go for the Cooper E on small wheels, to keep the ride as comfy as possible, but add the Level 2 pack so that you get the added light from the panoramic sunroof, and a better sound system. That sunroof will make the rear seats feel less claustrophobic, and the sound system will come into its own when the kids want you to play their choice of music.
