African market theyve been gaining popularity, probably not as quick as they should, but were getting there and one of those brands to introduce evs into the south african market. Not too long ago is mini. I must be honest im in my comfort zone a little bit over here, because i drive a mini as my personal car, so i was very happy to get this car on test im dean, frederick, welcome back to the channel. This is the mini cooper. Sc lets go check it out Music. So looking at this car from the front its kind of difficult to tell that its an ev – and i kind of like that about it because remember when evs first were introduced, the design was very outlandish. It was very hectic. You know it was very in your face. Look at me im an electric car, but when you look at the mini cooper se, you wouldnt really know that its an electric car, apart from a couple of exterior accents that do give it away, for example, ill show. You on the back in just a little bit, theres a big badge there that gives it away, but this yellow s over here the yellow side view mirrors as well. That also gives the game away, that it is an electric vehicle and also, if you look closer youll, see that all of this is closed up, because theres no engine to cool off anymore. So, looking at this car from the front and pretty much from any angle, you would not tell that its an ev and i like that.

It sticks to the quintessential personality and styling of a mini that has become so iconic and that we all love so much. Today lets go check out the back. So when you look at the back of the mini cooper se, there are a couple more things that give it away that. Let you know that this is an electric vehicle, for example this badge over here on the boot. This little yellow badge with the e in here all electric mini models: have this badge on them: thats, one of the major exterior signs that this is an ev and, of course, looking at the back bumper, no exhaust theres, no exhaust at the back here, because theres No engine so its just one solid design, which does look a little bit weird, because we all know that you know with the coopers. Theyve got the exhaust on the side. The cooper s has got the very iconic double tail pipes in the middle. But no with this one solid design going all over. I also really like these union jack tail lights. On the back, these look so cool, especially driving at night. It looks really awesome. Something else i like as well is the blacked out badging as well. I spoke about that previously in one of my other reviews of uh the opal marker when i said that its really nice, when you see the black badges on the back because it really elevates the look it makes it look so much more sneezy and definitely does That with this one as well lets go check out the interior so coming inside the mini cooper, se pretty much the same as with the exterior design.

Not much is all that different to a conventional mini, and i say that in a good way, because i love mini interiors, as i mentioned in the beginning of the video, my personal car is a mini, so this to me this is home. This is familiar territory. This is my comfort zone and a lot of the comforts and design quirks and iconic styles of minis still carries through to the cooper se. The only difference on the inside is that the yellow accents carry through so on a normal mini, for example, where the engine start switch would be red with this one, its yellow or green tomato tomato. Some people have called it yellow. Some people have called it green im gon na go with yellow, so all those normal touches um have still come through to the se black headliner. Thank goodness, a lovely, beautiful, panoramic sunroof, which i am such a fan of, and all the nice extras that you would expect on a mini cooper, this beautiful round display with your idrive system, which does by the way. How weird is this right: theres, apple carplay, but theres, no android auto? How does that work? Apparently, its got something to do with the software and you know because new bmws can offer android auto but minis dont, because apparently the software on here is one or two versions behind the latest bmws. I really hope that thats, something that is going to be improved in the future, because i mean living in 2022, where we have features like that in our cars these days, its very weird that they only offer the one, but not the other, and then, of course, Up here on the dash where you would normally have a rev counter to your right hand, side of your digital speedometer.

It is now, of course, showing you your battery percentage and, on the left hand side instead of having a rev counter its showing you how much charge you are sending to the wheels when you accelerate kind of like a rev counter. I suppose, but other features like this beautiful leather interior, these sporty seats that hug you nice and tight harman kardon sound system heads up display – which i do believe, is an option on this car. Although pretty much everything else that you see in here is pretty much the same and get this the union jack quilting over here on the headrest. How nice does that look its so nice? I love how quirky and stylish and fun and funky minis are so its really nice to see that that style that theyve been so well known for for so many years has stayed with the cooper se. I love it its really cool. Why dont we go for a drive, come on hop in lets, go for a spin Music so before i want to tell you more about how the cooper se actually works, i do also just want to say a massive thank you to the team at mini tiger Valley for giving us this loan car im sure you recognize the personalized number plate yep. This car is from mini tiger valley. Thank you so so much to the team there for helping us out with this test, car and theres actually going to be a link down in the description below.

So if you want to go and test drive, the mini cooper se hit that link, fill out the form or give them a call. All their details will be on that link there as well, and the team at mini tiger valley will be more than happy to assist you. So what powers, the mini cooper se is a 32.64 kilowatt hour battery and that is good for a range of up to 200 kilometers. I know i could hear it. I hear you in thats little thats low. Well, i mean in plain and simple terms: yes, yes, it is. However, you need to remember that a car like this one, specifically the mini cooper se. This is an urban eevee. This is not the kind of car that you were gon na, go on holidays with weekends away. I mean, i suppose you could, but just make sure you dont go too far. Well, this is technically its an urban eevee at heart, its designed for the city, its designed to be an urban runabout mill about town, all that kind of stuff and ive been driving it either in green mode or in green plus mode to maximize the range, because I must be honest: im not very used to driving evs, so the range anxiety has been real. I mean ive seen this in a lot of other videos as well, where people who have tested evs and reviewed evs have spoken about the range anxiety and i never really understood what they were talking about until i tasted an eevee for myself – and i was like, Oh yes, this is what range anxiety is.

So where do you charge an ev? Where do you charge your cooper ac? So when you purchase one of these mini does give you a fast charger for free that you can take home and install in your garage or wherever you want to have it fitted, which is really nice, because those things are worth tens of thousands of rand. So it is definitely a money saver in terms of the installation, i was informed by the team at mini tiger valley that while you do receive the fast charger complimentary, you do need to pay for. The installation of it, which i feel like is somewhat of a fair deal, considering the fact that they are giving you a fast charger which is very expensive, theyre, giving it to you on the house. So i guess somethings got to give there in that sense and i must say not having a fast charger. I have experienced more range anxiety, i think, than what somebody would experience if they did have one. So the fact that you get one when you buy the car is definitely a massive massive, massive plus and then the other question comes up job at load shedding in south africa. Okay, i hear you load shedding, is annoying load shedding. Does freak us out load shedding? Is a massive inconvenience i dont deny that, but when you go to bed at night, you plug in your phone on charge overnight and whether or not theres load shedding about nine and three quarter times out of ten.

Your phone is fully charged the next day when you go to bed at night with the electric car youll plug it into your fast charger in your garage. You know and leave it to charge overnight and itll be fully charged the next morning, whether or not theres load shedding because remember, with a fast charger its going to charge your battery up a lot quicker, as opposed to a normal charger that you would like. You know plug into like a normal three point plug in the wall which ive been using while ive had this car and it is not the best. So the fact that you get a complimentary flash to fast charger when you buy this car major major major plus there are charging points popping up more and more all over cities like cape town, where im from you know, majority shopping centers, offer eb charging stations. These days and that sort of stuff, so when you go to the shops, you can plug your car in on charge and charge up the batteries. While you do your shopping, so its not really the end of the world, there are facilities for you to be able to charge an ev and to be able to. You know comfortably own something like this and emit the worry of fuel costs. Speaking of costs, though right so the mini cooper, se is currently the most affordable eevee available in south africa and unfortunately that term is used rather loosely because at the moment this model, specifically, i was informed by the team at mini tiger valley, that this model, specifically Retails for about 750 000 rand – and that is not necessarily the brands fault.

A lot of that has got to do with the fact that at this point in time, the government places a major tax on the purchase of evs of electric vehicles, and that is, unfortunately largely what causes evs to cost as much as what they do in south Africa at the moment, so its not necessarily the brands fault driving an eevee is a lot of fun. Im not gon na be rude um, but it does a lot of cool things. So i want to show you something i want to go around this bend accelerating in an ev is insane because the power is immediate, so im going to flip it into sport mode yaku are you holding on because im going to floor it now and feel how Quickly, this car accelerates Laughter. It is so much fun so much fun, driving in an ev that accelerates as quickly as it does, but it slows right back down again because of the regenerative braking regenerative braking is very, very useful in set in the sense because im still getting so much fun Because with regenerative braking, so what the car does is, when you let go of the accelerator, what the car basically does is it then breaks on its own in a way and what thats, what the car is doing when it does, that is its sending battery power Back to the battery, so its pretty much kind of like very in a very, very small way, recharging the car, as you drive, which does assist you with you know, scoring a bit more range in your battery.

We, of course, came out to the cape town city center today to film with the midi cooper sc, because this is where you would oh theres another one haha there goes another electric mini, so this is where a car like the mini cooper se, is at its Most comfortable performs at its best and does what it is supposed to do in the best way in an environment like this. If you are somebody whos going to be driving very long distances, if you know that is your vibe, if that is the kind of driving and commuting that you do most of the time, i dont think that the mini cooper sc is a car for you, but If you are somebody who lives in an environment like this, you know a very built up urban area and you drive around a lot in areas like this, then i would definitely recommend that this is definitely something for you to look at because then range anxiety, isnt Going to be too much of an issue for you, you arent going to worry too much about that kind of stuff, because there are going to be shopping, centers, not too far from you that are going to offer ev charging. I mean here in cape town city center alone, theres, the vna waterfront thats got eb charging theres lifestyle and cliff thats got ev charging. You know that kind of stuff. So, just within this area, where im driving right now, there are two charging stations not very far away from me.

If i happen to not have a fast charger in my garage, if you live in an apartment, if you park in the street every night that kind of situation, so this car appeals to a very, very specific person. And if you are that person, and if this car does interest, you then dont forget to hit that link in the description below head up mini tiger valley, tell them that uh. You saw this video. You want to test drive the mini cooper sc, because maybe you want to check one out for yourself. Thank you so much for coming to hang out with the mini cooper se. Today it is so much fun driving this car. I hope that ive answered any questions. You might have about this ev or evs in general. Please dont forget to like this video to subscribe to the channel, so i can see you again in the next one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcRE–7SgGA