We’ve had our Mini coming up on a year-and-a-half, racking up about 12,000 miles, and here’s a spoiler alert: we love it.
Anyone who follows Mini knows reviewers raved about it with one glaring exception: and that’s the range. The 2021 Mini had an EPA estimated combined range of 108 miles per charge from its 32.6 kWh battery.
Post your Cooper SE comments or questions HERE.
The good news here is Mini under promised but over delivered on the EPA’s range estimate. We’ve exceeded 108 miles multiple times with 5% or more of charge left, doing primarily interstate travel, which the EPA rated at 100 miles.
The usual EV caveats apply. Your range will vary, depending on driving speed, driving mode and weather conditions.
EVs do see range losses during colder months, although that’s not a concern most of the time here in sunny Florida.
The Cooper SE’s limited range hasn’t slowed us down. We usually make a 215-mile round trip from Jacksonville to New Smyrna Beach twice a month in the Mini.
Our longest road trip so far has been 538 miles over the course of a holiday weekend.
Likely because of the battery’s small size, Mini capped the DC charging rate at 50kWh. It takes about a half-hour to get from a 5% to 80% charge at a Level 3 charging station.
As with most EVs, the SE’s charging speed slows down dramatically after 80% to avoid damaging the battery, resulting in most road trippers only charging up to 80%, unless they need the full 100 to get to their next fueling stop.
Urban Powerhouse
Now that we’ve got the Mini’s weak points out of the way, here comes the good news: it’s every bit as fun to drive as a gas-powered Mini, and maybe even more so.
Let’s start with around town charging.
On a 7.4 kWh Level 2 home charger it takes under five hours to fill the battery, meaning you’ll leave the house each morning with a full charge. It’s a great feeling never needing to make time for a gas station run on a busy day.
The electric Cooper SE feels as light on its feet as its turbo-powered Cooper S sister. I recently had a chance to drive a new Mini Cooper S convertible with a six-speed.
From a seat-of-the-pants perspective the EV Mini feels quicker since there’s no turbo lag or RPM drop-off during shifts as is the case with the manual Mini. Motor Trend measured a six-second 0-60 time on a 2020 SE it tested.
Mini’s famous go-cart handling remains. In my opinion, the shorter-range battery was an acceptable trade off to keep the price and weight down.
Build quality is excellent. No squeaks or rattles have cropped up during our ownership. The Cooper SE still feels as tight as the day we bought it.
The nearly white seats and floor mats are also holding up nicely.
The only service we’ve had done so far is a tire replacement after picking up a nail.
While it’s not showy, the Mini’s infotainment and ergonomics are excellent. The Mini’s center stack includes an optional 8.8-inch touchscreen, although you’ll probably won’t use the touch-feature very often thanks to its jog-dial set-up and physical buttons.
Unlike the trend toward big touchscreens controlling just about everything, the Mini’s jog-dial and buttons will become muscle memory, allowing you to quickly go from things like navigation to media without taking your eyes off the road. Same thing for the climate control.
In our case we got a fully loaded car, so a heads-up display is also part of the package. With redundant steering wheel-controls you can quickly change HD Radio channels without taking your eyes off the road. While there is no adaptive cruise control available the traditional cruise is quick and easy to operate, with steering wheel controls to nudge the speed up or down.
Alexa is on board for voice commands and in my experience does just as good a job with navigation commands as Google Assistant.
The built-in navigation isn’t the prettiest but gets the job done with one silly faux pas. In addition to showing charging stations it also displays gas stations.
Mini, if you’re reading this, it’s time for an over-the-air update that removes those pesky gas stations.
The car has four modes: Sport, Mid, Green and Green-Plus. The modes adjust the throttle response and climate control. In Green-Plus there is no heating or A/C, just the fan. The car defaults Mid-mode, which is the everyday mode.
One pedal driving or coasting is also available with a quick toggle switch.
One of the wonderful things about one pedal driving is it basically simulates the feel of a downshift and sends regenerated power into the battery.
As with most modern EVs, the Cooper SE comes with an app that can do things like open windows and pre-condition the car remotely. Most importantly, you can check charging progress remotely. It will also send charging update notifications to Apple and Wear OS smartwatches.
At the time of this video’s publication the Cooper SE didn’t have any direct competitors in the United States.
It was the only available two-door hot-hatch EV currently being sold in the U.S.
If you want an open-air EV, the Cooper SE is also one of the few choices available.
There’s a big trend toward fixed glass roof EVs that don’t open. But thankfully Mini is bucking that trend, offering a full glass sunroof that does open to take full advantage when nice weather is in the forecast.
With the exception of range, the Cooper SE remains every bit as practical as its gas-powered cousin.
It had a more spacious back seat than the convertible I drove and the car’s rear hatch has the same 34-square-feet of storage space as a Cooper S with the seats down.
One thing you don’t get is a frunk. That area is taken up by the Cooper SE’s inverter and other electronics. So don’t expect extra storage space because it’s an EV.
Circling back to the whole range thing, can you really live with a car a range of just over a hundred miles?
In our case, absolutely. It’s our second car so for road trips in-excess of, say, 150 miles one-way in a day, we’ll take the other car to avoid losing time to charging.
We have done several overnight trips in the Mini. We usually leave home with a full charge and then charge at our destination, or if the trip is beyond the Mini’s range, we plan a lunch stop or other break along the way.
For families with a second car, the Mini is a strong, affordable option.
For one person or a family with a single car, there are better options out there, although it will be tough to find one with as high a fun factor at the Mini’s price point. If you’re the type of person that doesn’t do long road trips, then a Cooper SE still might work.
If you’ve got any questions about our Mini, just let me know in the YouTube comments page for this video and I’ll do my best to answer them.