Mini Cooper Electric 2023 review: Is fun and funky enough for you to choose this EV? 4K

I think its one of the most underrated electric cars on sale in australia now and i think that, because it takes on challenges that other electric cars dont, it doesnt brag about its range, it doesnt brag about its sustainability or how many recycled materials it uses. This car focuses on driving, and that makes it quite unique in the ev world now you can read our full written review over at carsguy.com dot, a? U and its on our ev guide site section where we answer all of your ev questions that you might have so lets get into it. First things first pricings and specs now its impossible to talk about pricing and specs for electric cars without also talking about range and well. On that front, the mini is not exactly good value. You see itll only travel just over 200 kilometers on a single charge which isnt great by any measure, but many would argue thats, not the point and im actually inclined to agree with them. Lets look at why wearing a before on roads, price tag which starts in the region of 55 000 and tops out at well over 60k for the limited resolute edition were driving for this video. The cooper se is competing on price, with cars like the base, tesla model 3 pulsed r2 and even the nissan leaf, all of which have significantly more range for the same money. Even combustion hot hatches are significantly cheaper in this price range, while its driving range is very limited for what youre paying its worth, remembering that minis are generally in the realm of premium pricing anyway and will attract a customer seeking a niche experience.

The equipment list is relatively healthy for a mini with the electric version being based off the high spec s. Trim from the combustion range youll get standard equipment like synthetic leather seat, trim an 8.8 inch multimedia touchscreen with wireless apple, carplay connectivity as well as built in sat nav and a wireless phone charger. A 5.5 inch semi digital instrument, cluster led headlights, 17 inch, alloy wheels and dual zone climate, which feels a little overkill for such a small cabin. Of course, a key part of the mini experience is customization, and this is more what its range of variants allow all share the same motor range and battery specs, but the base classic variant makes do with more limited trim choices while the more expensive mid grade. Yours and limited edition, resolute, which we tested for this review, allow a more diverse set of color and interior trim options. Now, what can we say about design when it comes to minis its? Not as though the brand has revolutionized things year on year, although the one we have here is in a special edition, resolute trim, which means you get the signature, green color and the white roof, which i love, because every other brand does contrast. Roofs in black lets take a closer look. I will say, though, the mini is aging well, at least on the outside. Its almost timeless and classic looks betray its age and its been brought up to date with a few tweaks here and there, particularly in those led headlight clusters and more contemporary wheel choices.

Now you might have seen mini electrics with the kind of like three prong plug design, wheels and yeah theyre kind of fun and over the top electric y. But i kind of like it when the cooper sticks to the formula, and these are my favorite wheels that the car comes with. These are called the tentacle wheel and theyve got the little accents in there to remind you that it is the electric version which i love inside is less of a good story, while theres certainly an element of this car hiding its age with the caricatured style. Its easy to tell from its dated multimedia, offering and somewhat simple digital dash that its not the latest offering on the market. There are a few bits of older bmw switch gear in the interior, too, from the touch based indicators to the shift stick, but its still a funky space to be in which ultimately is the goal. Interestingly, and even from the outside, there is next to nothing to indicate the cooper is electric, which i actually think helps it, rather than hinters it as customers arent. Faced with having to stick with a particular aesthetic, as they might have to be, with versions of the hyundai kona or mgzs, which are electric alright practicality, does anybody buy a mini for practicality? I really hope not because well just have a look at the boot. I dont have our signature. Cars guide luggage set, but you can probably see straight away there that theres just not much boot to work with so whats it like in the cabin well, if youve, never driven a mini before ill show.

You, okay up front its kooky because its a mini theres just a lot going on theres a massive center dial thing, which will be familiar if youve been in any mini before. But currently it houses a multimedia screen and its got kind of clunky old, bmw software, which isnt the best to use its still a touch screen. But you can operate it with a little center dial as well. So there are kind of multiple ways you can go about that. I like the steering wheel and i like the funky little digital dash fitting in here, which both has a digital piece to it, but also it has like an actual analog dial. That shows you how much energy youre putting down and your regen as well its kind of quaint. I like it, if youre any taller than me its going to feel a bit squashed in here too, so its worth, keeping that in mind and these seats, while they look really cool theyre manual adjust, which is a bit of a tall order for a car that Costs this much money, okay, this doesnt look good. I know what youre thinking and to be honest with you, it wasnt graceful to get in here either, but actually im impressed that i fit it all, because minnie said one of the things that they changed when they made this car electric was that actually raised this Rear bench up a little bit to facilitate batteries, underneath so the fact that my head isnt touching the roof and the fact that, if i slot my feet in, i can actually sit behind my own driving position.

Its not as bad as you think. Its going to be to sum up them, this little car is mini by name and many by nature, preferring to stick to its stylistic roots. Then try and change things to make it bigger on the inside, no matter which trim level you pick. The mini electric is powered by a single 135 kilowatt 270 newton meter, electric motor, which drives the front wheels. It doesnt sound like much, but its a punchy. Little thing in a small car which helps the electric mini live up to that cooper s promise sold by its exterior. In fact, it will still sprint from zero to 100 kilometers in 7.3 seconds, which, while not necessarily impressive for an electric car isnt too shabby by warm hatch standards. Okay lets cover off our range charging and our battery, so the mini cooper electric has a battery which is a smidge over 30 kilowatt hours and thats not a whole lot. It only grants the car a range of just over 200 kilometers and thats, not great either but again, thats, not the point of the car having a battery so small keeps it really light, so thats really neat and also having a battery. This small means that you can charge it up really quickly, so on a dc charger at 50 kilowatts, you can charge it up in just over 30 minutes, but importantly on an ac charger, and this is where this car really comes into its own.

It has what i would consider an over spec ac charger, so it charges at a rate of 11 kilowatts on on one of those plugs, and that means that you can charge it up in just over two and a half hours from virtually nothing on an ac Plug thats, a grocery shops worth of charging to get a full charge. A small advantage of having a small battery and mini could have easily given this car a 7.2 kilowatt charger which still wouldnt have been too bad, considering the battery size or, worse still, a 3.6 kilowatt hour charger, which is what many brands with cars batteries this size Do so im really impressed with that thats? Probably one of the headline specs for this car, the fact you can charge it so fast on ac. It makes charging really convenient. Just a quick word on kilowatt hours to 100 kilometers that new energy efficiency standards. Many would argue that the battery pack is relatively light and therefore allows the car to maintain its signature. Driving experience. Look if thats true in a moment, but its electric consumption is rated at 17.5 kilowatt hours to 100 kilometers now, while that consumption number doesnt sound amazing for such a small car, i achieved a much more reasonable number of 14 kilowatt hours to 100 kilometers in an Earlier week, long test thats not bad at all. Okay, so all the specs and style in the world is great. But for me the real selling point of the mini electric is the experience behind the wheel because it really nails all of those mini cornerstones, its light, its connected its firm.

You feel everything thats going on at the front wheels at the road and thats something that so few electric cars have tackled, let alone nailed theres something about this car, which makes it truly fun to drive and its one of the few cars that gives you a Bit more hope that the electric future can really be fun. The power figures arent amazing, but it is bloody, quick when you put your foot down in sports mode, its just a little bit unhinged how quickly that torque arrives and the same could actually be said for the regen. The regen is actually really good in this car. You can recoup a lot of energy by using it with the only mild issue being that in the full regen mode. It can be quite abrupt when you let your foot off the accelerator, its good, because its saving you as much energy as possible, but it can just be a little stilted around town. Sometimes, to give you an idea of how this car compares to its rivals on the road take a look at the model 3, for example, that car is firm like this mini is, but it misses a little bit of that connection to the road because of its Weird steering tune and its over techified interior and then theres other electric cars like the mx 30, which is also a light electric car like this, but youre sitting too far off the ground to be as connected as this car feels in the corners again.

One of the major downsides of this car is that multimedia suite it is feeling a little old. The nav has some interesting ideas about which direction you should go when you put an address in, and the dial system here is cumbersome and like many old bmws, which is where this system comes from. There are just too many menus, so its not the easiest system to use while youre on the move. I find myself wishing even for something like teslas massive touch screen as flawed as it is. The little dash here, though, is clever and quaint, and it suits the character of the cast so well with that little analog dial flying up when you put your power power down and down when you put your regen down it its just its such a great little Feature of this car that speaks to its character and look yes. The ride is quite firm, maybe too firm for some, especially since its a car best suited to driving around cities, and if you live in a major one in australia, like sydney youll know how rough our roads can be. So you might get batted about a little bit in this car, but its not as bad as it could be, especially since its got quite a few lithium batteries under the floor, and it weighs significantly more than the combustion version. It leaves you with a funny conundrum, because this car is actually so much fun to drive on a curvy road.

You actually kind of want to seek those out. You just have to hope that theyre within distance of your limited range and just a word on adjustability, because i do like an electric car where you can sort of change it around and customize it to your own driving preference and in the mini youve, got a Little switch down on the dash here that adjusts either a low regen setting mode, which is quite unobtrusive um. So if youre more used to driving a combustion car, maybe youd like to use that mode or theres a heavier regen mode and, as i said before, that can be a little bit stilted if you set that to max. So keep that in mind as well. Theres also multiple driving modes, theres, an efficiency mode, uh called green plus, which is quite handy to have, although you have to do without some of this cars luxuries, if you put it in green plus mode, it turns the accelerator response all the way down, and it Even switches the air conditioning off, so i think youd probably need to be wanting to make the absolute most of this cars range to have to use that function, but its nice that it has it. Despite its relative age, the cooper comes with some of the key active safety items that we like to see on all cars read about them on our written review at carsguy.com, but it is worth noting this little hatch only has a four star and cap safety rating On the one hand, it achieved this before it had been updated with some of these key safety items, but on the other hand, it is to a very old 2014 standard, so who knows how it would perform in an up to date, test mini, sits under the Bmw umbrella, a brand which is a famous laggard for its three year warranty.

It covers unlimited kilometers and does include roadside assist and the battery components are covered by a more industry standard eight year and 160 thousand kilometer warranty. But it would still be nice to see improvement here on the topic of servicing. Minis have condition based intervals, which means the car will tell you when its time to visit a workshop service costs are interesting. A basic pack covering six years costs just 1280 or smidge over 200 a year. This includes filters, fluids and checks. Meanwhile, the much more expansive plus pack costs over four grand for the same six year period, but it does include expendable items like brake, pads and discs. As well as things like windscreen wipers, okay time for a verdict, i think the mini cooper is really surprising, its fun to drive it sells that mini promise. It feels really lightweight and it takes on that issue of drivability so well. No other electric car is doing that. This is genuinely a fun little car to drive.