MINI Cooper SE - MINI size; mighty fun..... 

Picked up ours 2-weeks ago. The ‘pop, fart and bang’, as you call it, when you back off the accelerator in Go-kart mode happens when the re-gen comes in. If you put it in ‘B’ drive mode it does it all the time. In ‘D’ the re-gen doesn’t happen as often so it only happens now and then. You can adjust the head up display - you can see it perfectly if you set it for your height. It really is a fab car to drive. We are getting around 220 miles on a charge.

Am very interested in the Countryman SE!

Thanks for this!👍 I think the cheapest one"SE in ESSENTIAL TRIM" black paint is enough for me. Better comfort with smaller wheels to and less road noice👍

The flutter sound is fun…. But I’ve turned the internal noises off… but yes… it’s super fun and very planted!

Glad I have ordered a black one, exactly the same as this one as our 2nd car. Really glad you loved it as I could not justify the Hyundai ioniq 5 N cost but this sounds good fun while the family Tesla model Y is the practical car for us and the dog etc, this can be my bit of fun 😊

My father’s Austin Seven Mini was a brilliant little car. She came into our lives on 1 January 1960, having been ordered at the London Motor Show in 1959!!

Love the looks in black, other colours not so much. The issue is the price to get those looks - it’s the usual death by a thousand cuts with options and you’ll end up with a very hefty bill! My next EV will be leased, so will all depend what the rates are, but as a second car I would definitely be tempted.

The Mini has always been thought of as a fun car to drive. The original style was considered unsafe so the BMW Mini was brought out to the world!!

60/40 split in f56 mini electric. Current owner and I’m liking the look of this.

If only you could have been able to give us the same review of a new Honda e…and it would have had two battery sizes and a realistic price range. That is sadly a hopeless dream, but maybe the Honda e has found a spiritual successor in the Hyundai Inster. Almost as cute and even more compact, with less tech and premium feel to it, but much more practical and adaptable. Most importantly (and a final blow to the e) with class Leading range. One could even forgive it for being marketed as an SUV. A symbol of the Koreans succeeding where the Japanese are failing (sad thing that). In any case, very much looking forward to this review.

Previous "plug" wheels were daft and fugly. These new rims look good, except the "Nightflash 2 spoke" that looks like they've shattered from the torque delivery. Flush but fully mechanical door handles from BMW are perfect. Kept the 2 door small, sacrificed the rear seat quality and space which is fine for folks without 3rd and 4th family members. We lived with a MINI Cooper S for years by keeping the rear seats folded most of the time. Looking forward to this car, but alas, it'll be tariffed into oblivion here in the USA, so Chinese pairup was a massive fail for too many reasons. Dump the giant glass roof, as it just cooks you and creates unnecessary glare. I know Brits don't think they'll get cooked but we're seeing soaring temps in most places in the world. Here is why people should consider this car over others. Large battery, heavy EVs are soon to be labeled unsustainable. This is because the Life Cycle Emissions from bloated EVs still makes them a hot mess for the Climate. However, spec this with the smaller battery and you've got a car that's much closer to respecting the limitations of EVs to represent real change in lowering emissions. I look forward to seeing your comparison with Abarth and Alpine. Maybe also go 6 ways and include the base models Cooper E, 500e, R5 and describe the benefits of going minimalist for efficiency reasons (and cost of course). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE performance cars, but we sacrifice the benefits of these cars when we tune them and contrary to popular belief, EVs are not zero emissions. Their operating efficiency and their build emissions matter because renewable electric conservation is still very important. We can't lose sight of why we're going electric and how we're already in the danger zone of Climate Crisis. Messing around with constant car turnover is ignoring the reality of transportation solutions. Buy a modest EV, power it with local solar/wind exclusively, and keep it for 20+ years. Anything less is ignoring the reality of our challenge.

The original Mini had a black speedometer/fuel gauge, and the Austin Seven Mini was THE VERY FIRST Mini, with the Morris Mini Minor being brought out days later.

Mini needs a something like a Lucid motor in the rear & a frunk under that huge bonnet; then I'd be impressed!

The new Mini Cooper with the smaller battery will get about 150 miles real world range. I get about 120 on my old electric Mini, I will keep her!

To me the front grill that's not a grill is starting to look a bit BMW-ish, it's like if you removed the plate piece, you would see a double-kidney shape! The go-kart noise at 29:16 sounds like the acceleration sound effect at the beginnning of the Six-Million-Dollar Man theme!

Why no mention of the Brabus Smart #1 as a rival?

I would love to see you testing campervans as well as cars. Cars are interesting to look at, but a lot of them don’t have enough space inside to comfortably take four or five adults the way my Renault Zoe has done for me.

Lovely little car, looks like a great drive , suffering from BMW/German pricing/option hike! Base is £5k too spicy, options quoted should be base, becomes £10k to expensive... May lease but residuals will be pants.

How does it go predicting the range remaining? That was a bit of a weakness with the previous one no?

I am just about to change the Zoe for a Vauxhall Combo Life Electric with the Wheelhome Vikenze III-e camper conversion.

I had a side by side race off the lights against my byd dolphin and I just had him!! I love the look of this one! I had 6.2 on my timer and the mini was prob 6.5. the mini looks tiny up against the dolphin 😂

The other thing I always say is that a Mini isn’t as small as it used to be!!

Used EVs are great value now.

There are Americans now who think the Cooper name is the model name for Minis. Why does BMW have to stick the Cooper name on absolutely everything? The price needs to come down and this pricing is down to legacy makers not set up for BEV production. Battery prices are falling so this will help in the future but there are so many Chinese companies now making things that will shock European makes and some are already profitable with BEV production.

This is apparently the first MINI with power seats. Can you clarify if manual seats are offered in the base spec or is heated (and JCW) the only real seat choices aside from texture?

Hi, Is it me or does the side view look like a Suzuki Swift?

Good review, spoiler looks awful IMHO but can see some liking it, they need to introduce a quicker version, cant have a volvo for instance leaving it for dust..

I wonder if the drive’s as good as my current Renault Zoe!! I can hardly feel bumps in the road that would turn me off my electric bike!!

What about the Volvo ex30 you seem to have missed it for some reason and that starts at 34000

Sorry it’s a No from me I have owned a MINI for 17 years and currently own a GP3. Apart from the £40k + price tag for this model which I think is completely insane I am not keen on the rear end at all. The interior is okay but all those silly gimmicky sounds would drive me crazy. I will definitely be keeping my GP not for me sorry

Still not on par with the 500e. It's just one you want to get cause you can.

Not really my kind of car!! But there again, I’m just about to change from my little Renault Zoe to a small camper. And it’s still going to be electric!!

The quality is typically BMW quality!! It may be built in the original Morris factory, but it’s certainly not anything like the original style of Mini.

It's from China. How bad is the binging and bonging audible interventions while driving on tight roads?

So you get 100 miles out of the 32.6 kWh (28.9 usable) MINI SE as i do. sometimes 112. Not the WLTP 145, the EPA 114 more like. So unless you actually can take a MINI Cooper E out and get 5.2 miles a kWh then the WLTP figure isa nonsense. Same with the Cooper SE big battery. What a same you or the other Vloggers are not just heading off for a 3 hour drive and tell us what you do get as a Miles per kWh. Or just tell us what you get if you drive for 50 miles, can you do that with 10 kWh?

Aren't this and the Countryman the models build in China?

£42k SE with this pack😂 Seriously are they on drugs. I’d have to think twice with just over 200 miles real world even if it was £28k. To be fair Cars with delivery miles are on sale for £5k off the list price. The next gen of this will probably do near 300 miles real world and cost £10k less if battery pack prices continue to fall as they are and competition Keeps coming. We have had five and two currently on the drive in both factory ordered Hatch and Clubman but can’t see this at all don’t like the rear and never will, the inside is tacky and I’ve been all over this Car. This exact SE with works pack if it was £28k maybe we will see just how bad it will be I personally think it will depreciate like a brick. Had a Volvo EX30 out and it leaves this standing in a straight line maybe on one of my favourite roads the old military road Cairngorms the MINI would be the trump card in the twisty B road that it has always done excellently. What’s the Works version with all 4 Electric going to cost £53k 😢 The problem is that Renault 5 retro comes in for under £30k looking like it does that’s real competition in the hot hatch.

The new MINI looks shite in yellow and other colors with standard trim. Like really shite. The JWC kit and blackish are the only way to fix the awkward childish styling of this new model. I've followed MINI since Stephenson brought it back and it's gotten worse looking with each iteration, without a great design cohesiveness. I hated the plastic wheel arches of our R56, but it is much nicer than the failed sloppy slab side styling. Spiderman taillights, all of it, just looks like you plucked it from the ground floor of Ikea on your way out of the store. Pizza screen is super fail. This car's design just looks like it was executed by junior design team in China.

Disagree with you on this one. Went to have a look at the Countryman- to ugly in real life! This exact same spec Mini SE Sport was parked up next to it. Looked cool. Offered a test drive. Yes, it is fast enough but horrible torque steer as its FWD. Poor real world efficiency.- comfortably BELOW 200 miles. (49.5kWh useable?) The electronic exhaust noise (yes I know you can turn it off) just annoying. And the bloody price is totally laughable. £42,500. The EV market is becoming so much more competitive now. Without massive discounts this will be another failure- just like the first MINI E (that just had poor range for the price), and deservedly so. Just like the Abarth which is again brilliant in its own way but hobbled by poor range for the incredible prices charged for it. So many better EVs coming out. Tesla M3 cheaper and a much better all round car. I know it is a different class of car but you'd be mad to spend this on a very compromised Mini SE.