MINI Cooper Electric 3-Door Review: All Zapped Up

What we like:

Fun to drive despite being an EV

Great quality inside and out - feels premium

Reasonable pricing in this market

What we dislike:

Not very practical

Range is still below average

Following on from the MINI Electric, the first electric MINI we’ve reviewed on OneShift some 4 years ago, comes the J01 Mini Cooper E and SE.

Unlike the previous MINI Electric which was adapted from its ICE counterpart, the J01 is actually built from the ground-up as an EV. An ICE version of the MINI Cooper still exists in the form of the F66, but this is actually wholly unrelated to the J01, being a heavy facelift of the F55 instead. The J01 is a result of a joint venture with Great Wall Motor (hint: it builds the Ora Good Cat) and is currently built in China, with future production planned in Oxford as well.

If all this is a little confusing to you, we understand. All you need to know is that the J01 feels so similar to the F66 that, had I not done my research, I would have been none the wiser. The J01 has virtually the same interior with the funky centre circular screen, the fabric surfaces around the dash and the doors as well as the excellent seating position despite having a battery placed underneath.

It is the outside where you get slightly more differentiation to the ICE car, and it’s a bit of a game of Spot It - the door handles, the wheel arches and the bonnet shut lines are all clues. To a layman though, it’s still the MINI we adore and cherish.

More importantly, the J01 feels like a properly compact car true to its name. Maybe it is because all other cars have grown so much that I feel this way. Rear passengers will definitely tolerate only short trips, and the boot is comically small. But its demure size really helps to make it feel properly sporty.

At just 1,540 kg, the Cooper Electric feels rambunctious and effervescent behind the wheel. Combined with meaty steering and firm damping, the car is great fun to drive. The augmented sounds, varying in different modes, also offer some variety to an otherwise one-dimensional EV driving experience. I particularly like how the sound mimics pops and bangs in go-kart mode.

With the 290 Nm of torque, the Cooper Electric is all too ready to chirp its front wheels. Its pace feels more like a Cooper S, so I cannot imagine how the more powerful Cooper SE would feel like. Actually, I reckon the SE might just offer so much power that it’ll overwhelm the experience. The base Cooper Electric is just nice.

With a 40.7 kWh battery (nett: 36.6 kWh), the Cooper Electric offers a range of up to 305 km. It’s still below average by today’s standards, as was the previous generation, but at least it betters the last car by approximately 35 km. That extra mileage makes quite a big difference as the Cooper Electric now feels a tad more usable, requiring less charging stops.

I quite adore the Cooper Electric. At $208k at press time, it is priced comparably to the polished Smart #1, the upmarket Zeekr X or the made-in-Singapore IONIQ 5, among others in the hotly contested EV segment. The Cooper Electric is probably the least practical of the lot with the lowest range. When you pick the Cooper Electric, it is definitely listening to the heart over the head. But this is one passionate pick that’s hard to regret.

Photos by James Wong

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