2024 Mini Cooper SE review

On the face of it, the Mini Cooper ought to be a prime beneficiary of the switch to electrification. Small, punchy, cheeky and ideally suited to the cut and thrust of city driving, an electric motor would certainly seem preferable to an internal combustion engine.

As we've seen in some electric city cars, however, the compromises that come with a necessarily modest battery can severely hobble all-round practicality. So is the new Cooper SE a case of all show and very little go? That's what we needed to establish.

Those of you with longer memories will know that this isn't Mini's first stab at a hatch with a battery pack. You can be forgiven for letting any recall of the old Mini Cooper SE from 2020 slip from your temporal lobe because it was a fundamentally forgettable thing: overpriced and underwhelming would be a fair summation.

Its main problem was its tiny BMW i3-derived 33kWh battery, which while keeping weight down to just 1365kg, offered up only 230km of range. What's more, BMW demanded $54,800 for the privilege.

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JUMP AHEAD

• How much is it and what do you get?
• How do rivals compare on value?
• What’s it like to drive?
• Interior comfort, space and storage
• How much fuel does the Mini Cooper SE use?
• How safe is the Mini Cooper SE?
• VERDICT

How much is it and what do you get?

This time round Mini offers way more for your money. The Cooper SE now sells for $58,990 but packs a far bigger battery, the 54kWh pack being fully 64 percent larger than its predecessor.

There's also the less powerful Mini Cooper E available, a vehicle which we did not get to drive, retailing at $53,990 with a 41kWh battery pack. It seems worth the five grand outlay to get a quicker and more rangy vehicle.

It certainly seems to offer a good deal more for the money than an Abarth 500e in terms of physical size and capability. The Cooper SE is built in Mini's Zhangjiagang plant in China and sits on a chassis that's related to the GWM Ora 03, courtesy of a joint venture between Mini and GWM called Spotlight Automotive.

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From 2026, it'll also be built in the UK and will therefore be able to sidestep any putative tariffs on Chinese-built vehicles. It'll also be sold alongside ICE-engined Cooper variants, which run on a very different floorpan, so there's something for everyone.

First impressions from walking around the new car are mixed. The way it's packaged is excellent, with real aggression in the way the wheels are pushed to each corner with minimal overhangs. That pays dividends in terms of interior space, more on which later.

Design director Oliver Heilmer is happy to invoke the philosophies of Sir Alec Issigonis when discussing this vehicle, claiming that its pared-back exterior detailing is a tribute to the minimalist approach of the original.

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Decluttering exterior designs is something that appeals to a certain strand of designer vanity, but I'm not sure that buyers of this car ever draw particular parallels with the original Mini.

Rather they've come to expect a degree of design adornment with these retro-themed reissues and there are elements of the new Cooper SE that look a little plain, especially in darker colours where the shape and tension in the flanks isn't so obvious.

Curiously, while Mini had also excised a lot of the chromework from the exterior, it had then somewhat ruined the effect by fitting some of the fussiest alloy wheels imaginable to the SE.

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The two-tone 18-inch 'Night Flash Spoke' wheels also look a nightmare to keep clean and there's no other option on offer. The Union Jack rear lights carry over, although we've heard whispers that there's a way of switching them out if you so desire.

Buyers can choose from five colour combinations: Nanuq White with a Jet Black roof, Midnight Black II with a body coloured-roof; Chili Red II with a glazed white roof, British Racing Green IV with the white roof and the spec that we drove, Blazing Blue with white roof.

As we were driving European-market vehicles, not all of the specs matched up exactly with the 'Classic' trim level we'll see in Australia, but it was enough to get a representative feel for what's coming in quarter three of 2024.

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How do rivals compare on value?

The Abarth 500e clearly can't hold a candle to the Mini Cooper S's blend of qualities.

The key rival will likely be the excellent $59K Cupra Born, which delivers more battery and therefore more range, but is correspondingly heavier and slower off the mark than the Mini. Beyond that, what else is on offer at this price point for the design-driven EV buyer? We can't see Cooper SE prospects cross-shopping an MG4, as good as the Long Range 77 model is.

The problem with this price point is that it nudges at the event horizon of the Tesla Model 3 RWD, which has just had another haircut on its sticker price. Agreed, it's not apples for apples, but if buyers start to become swayed by more practical factors, it's hard to ignore the Model 3's attractions. All Mini really needs to do, however, is get prospects to test drive the two cars and it'll have an unanswerable case in its favour.

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What’s it like to drive?

The Mini Cooper SE is probably the most fun electric car to drive this side of a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.

Like the all-conquering Korean, there's a sense that its designers have thought long and hard about how to engage the EV driver in a way that many of its rivals simply haven't. Bottom line? It's one of those rare EVs that you'd take for a spirited zip just for the hell of it.

Drop into the cabin and the driving environment will put a smile on your face. There's something reminiscent of a BMW i3 (albeit built down to a price) about the interior fabrics that run across the dash top.

There's a concept car boldness to the knitted recycled polyester swatches of fabrics, the decorative watch-strap motif that you see on the dash, the steering wheel and the storage bin lids and, of course, the frisbee-sized circular centre display.

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There's only a modest amount of rake and reach adjustment on the steering wheel, but the driver's seat can be adjusted low at its cushion, and the low scuttle height affords decent visibility. The mirrors, both internal and external, are pretty small though.

Prod the car into life and you'll be aware that Mini has spent a lot of time on how this car sounds. It's equipped with seven intriguing drive modes or, in Mini-speak 'Experiences', that can be cycled through via a physical switch. Some examples?

Core delivers a futuristic Jetsons-style swoosh under acceleration, where Balance has a curious cicada-like chirrup as you tip into the throttle. Vivid silences the car and prioritises your choice in music, a feature that is certain to be widely copied.

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There's a muted Green setting and an unusual Timeless setting that aims to replicate the sound of the original Mini at idle and low speeds, building to a more modern sound as you accelerate.

Then there's Go-Kart mode which has a bassily intense top end timbre and a cute overrun burble as you throttle off in the upper registers.

The car sits on passive dampers, so there's no adjusting the ride quality which is firmish. Mini's test route sent us out on onyx-smooth roads, but we were able to deviate and find some scabbier and lumpier stretches of bitumen and it's... busy.

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Not harsh, but certainly something that'd probably get your attention on a typical Aussie B-road. We'll reserve full judgement for when we get hold of one locally.

The corollary of that is that body control is extremely good. The kerb weight of this model is just a sniff over 1600kg, so it's no featherweight, but it controls its masses very adeptly. Mini points out that it has kept a lid on that figure, but also points out that ride comfort has been helped by the ratio of sprung mass to unsprung mass.

Click out the stability control and lift-off oversteer is easily controlled by the crisp (2.2 turns lock to lock, fixed ratio) steering. In Go+Kart mode, the ESC can be switched between a default Sports mode into a playful Sports Plus (think BMW's M Dynamic mode) or all the way off.

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All of the basics for the forthcoming hot JCW version look extremely promising.

That car will doubtless run on a more focused tyre than the somewhat milquetoast Michelin e-Primacy 225/40 R18 rubber that the Cooper SE is supplied with. These tend to chirp with wheelspin out of tighter corners and remind you that the handling limits would doubtless be a good deal higher with more focused rubber.

I questioned Mini's dynamics engineer Patrick Haussler on the choice of this tyre and he shrugged and said “It's a Label A, it's a rolling resistance tyre. It's a must-have, we have to deal with it.” If Mini fitted a Label C (such as a Michelin Pilot Sport) or a Label D tyre, Haussler reckoned that this would knock “something like 20 to 30 kilometres” from the overall range.

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“The tyre producers have learned a lot. I remember five or six years ago when we had the first generation of Label A tyres, it was hard to find a tyre that was good for our car. This time we have had a lot of tyre testing, but in the end, I'm pretty happy about the tyres.”

Mini also worked hard at finessing the feel of the brake pedal, smoothing the handover between regen and friction braking. The Cooper SE does without re-gen paddles, and the various drive modes offer different levels of re-gen.

Users can also select different levels of recuperation or leave the car in adaptive mode, which utilises the car's camera system to gauge the level of re-gen for any given situation. The single-piston front brakes look a bit puny but work well enough in road usage, although a spell on a race track would probably find their limits in fairly short order.

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Power is rated at 160kW, with torque at 330Nm. Mini quotes a 0-100km/h time of 6.7s, but pick-up off the line feels initially quite soft.

In the Sport drivetrain setting, it's possible to lean against the brakes in order to build some tension in the drivetrain. The steering wheel is obnoxiously fat-rimmed but, like the rest of the cabin, does a good job of packaging some physical controls so that you're not always diving into the touchscreen on the move.

The infotainment system contains the ubiquitous voice assistant, an interesting augmented reality element to the satellite navigation (in jaw-dropping resolution from the front camera), wireless Android and Apple integration, and myriad different skins corresponding to the different drive modes.

Refreshingly, the physical and the virtual are well integrated. You can swipe up to bring up a 'toolbelt' of favourite functions, or assign a favourites button on the steering wheel to do likewise. A button on the lower dash also displays the ADAS systems, so lane assist and speed limit warnings can be killed fairly painlessly.

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Interior comfort, space and storage

The cabin really is what will sell this generation Mini. Put simply, it's a lovely place to spend time.

Even for a lanky bloke like me, there;s never a problem with headroom; amazing given that this car features a full-pane glass roof that also robs a couple of centimetres of overhead real estate. The JCW-spec vegan leather sports seats offer decent levels of support and get a heating function to complement the memory settings.

Indeed, the spec sheet shows that the wheelbase of the electric versions of the Cooper and fully 31mm longer than that of the ICE variants. You'll feel that inside, with reasonable rear legroom for small adults and kids.

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Given that this is a three-door car (step up to the Aceman or Countryman if you want five doors), rear seat space wasn't a key design priority. Neither was luggage space which, at 210 litres, isn't stellar.

Flip the rear seats down and that grows to 800 litres, but there’s no electrical assistance for the tailgate. Mini’s weight-saving quest saw to that. You'll also search in vain for a spare wheel, Mini instead providing a mobility foam kit if you catch a flat.

The detailing of the interior is worth poring over. The rose gold finish for the harman kardon speakers and the interior door pulls is a lovely bit of visual sleight of hand that distracts you from the hard plastics that surround them. The low-key integration of the air vents is also very slickly done, and there's even a decent amount of interior stowage space.

There's a deepish central bin, reasonable door pockets, and grippy central wireless charging pad for your phone. The centre armrest moves with the driver's seat which may cause an interloping passenger a little angst.

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How much fuel does the Mini Cooper SE use?

Mini quotes a WLTP range figure of 403km for the Cooper SE, a hefty step up from the 305km showing of the lesser Cooper E model.

Of course, given that this was a press launch on some fairly tasty hill routes, we endeavoured to find some sort of worst case energy consumption figure and returned a 23.2kWh/100km figure, which means that even if you drive as if your trousers are on fire, you'll still get over 200km from a charge. Drive in a more measured fashion and over 300km is easily attainable, Mini quoting a 14.7kWh/100km energy consumption figure.

Both Cooper E and SE models come equipped with DC fast charging capabilities enabling them to reach 0-80 percent charge in 28 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively. The peak DC charging rate of 95kW is so-so. When using a standard 11kW AC charger, the Cooper E achieves that same state of charge in 4.5 hours and the Cooper SE in 5 hours and 15 minutes.

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How safe is the Mini Cooper SE?

We don't have an ANCAP rating yet for the Mini Cooper SE,but it'd be a genuine surprise if it doesn't score a five-star rating.

It's packed with gear to make driving that little bit safer, The Driving Assistant Plus package is fitted as standard and includes radar-based driver assistance systems such as cruise control, lane change warning with blind spot detection and rear crossing traffic warning with brake intervention. It backs this up with camera and ultrasonic assistance to enable functions like Active Cruise Control with Stop&Go functionality, Collision Prevention, Surround View and

Remote 3D View, as well as a Parking Assistant. There's also a standard and delightfully crisp and configurable Head-Up Display.

Tyre pressure monitoring is a standard feature as are driver and passenger front and side airbags, and side airbags for rear passengers.

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VERDICT

Overall, it's hard not to love what Mini has done with the Cooper SE. It's a vehicle overflowing with personality, it's fun to drive, it's great just to sit in and there's clearly been a great deal of measured consideration that's gone into figuring out who will buy this car and how it'll be used.

Spending $60K on a Mini might grate with some, but when you look at what else is offered at this price point, it's possible to make a convincing case for the Cooper SE.

Clearly we’ll reserve full judgement until we’ve assessed its ride quality on Australian roads, but there’s a lot to like about this package. If you’re not sold on the benefits of its electric drivetrain, Mini also offers an ICE version of the Cooper S with a 150kW/300Nm two-litre turbo four that’s lineball in terms of pace.

Why not try both? That has the makings of a fascinating exercise but I’m willing to bet that the Cooper SE would make its piston-engined sibling feel a long way behind the curve.

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