For the past 20 years, Mini has made its mark on the industry with its fun to drive models that prove that you don’t need to have massive amounts of power under the hood to have fun. Mini has already announced plans to go fully electric in the future, but it looks like we won’t have to worry about the future electric Mini models losing their fun to drive character. Well as long as they are anything like the fully electric 2023 Mini Cooper SE.
Mini is getting us prepped for its electrified future with the Cooper SE, which is an electric version of the Mini Cooper. Instead of basing the Cooper SE on the base Mini hardtop, Mini used the better Cooper S as the base. This means that the Cooper SE is not based on a dedicated EV platform and instead the existing platform has been heavily modified for the EV powertrain.
This Mini EV is no slouch since it’s powered by a single electric motor with 181 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque. The power is sent to the front wheels and with that much power on tap, there is a bit of torque steer. But once you get used to that, it’s all smiles. It can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds, which is only slightly slower than the 6.4 seconds that the Cooper S needs to reach that speed.
The Mini Cooper SE is just as fun on a twisty road as the gas-powered Cooper S. The extra weight of the battery keeps it firmly planted on the road and the steering is actually heavier than you might expect. The regenerative braking system is adjustable with the default setting easily being able to slow it down once you move your foot from the accelerator.
While Mini was able to package the battery in the Cooper SE without any compromises to cargo space, the bad news is that it doesn’t have that much range. The Cooper SE only has an EPA-rated driving range of 114 miles. Given the fact that most new EVs have anywhere from 250-350 miles of range, it makes the Cooper SE hard to justify if you take long road trips.
The Cooper SE’s poor driving range is on par with the Mazda MX-30. This means that if you generally just zip around town most of the time and have a place to charge it at night, then the Cooper SE is great, but if you want to get away for the weekend, you’ll need to have another car on hand.
Charging it at a DC fast charger will take up to 36 min to charge the battery to 80 percent. Using a 240-volt Level 2 charger, about 25-30 miles of range can be added per hour.
Inside the Cooper SE’s interior is nearly identical to what you’ll see in a Cooper S. It comes standard with a digital gauge cluster and an 8.8-inch touchscreen. The gauge cluster looks a tad old and the touchscreen could be bigger or at least reshaped to occupy more space in the big ring on the center of the dashboard. For some reason only Apple CarPlay is available with Android Auto missing from the specs.
The pricing for the 2023 Mini Cooper SE starts at $35,075.
At the end of the day, the 2023 Mini Cooper SE is a great electric vehicle for the city. It’s just as zippy and fun to drive as the gas-powered Mini Cooper, so there are no compromises there. We just wish it had more range, but that’s something that Mini will likely fix with the next-generation electric Mini Cooper. Either way, the future looks great for Mini.
