• Two electric motors available
• Both have plenty of poke
• Good fun to drive, despite weight

Electric motors

The 2024 Mini Cooper Electric is available with a choice of two electric motors: E grade with a total power output of 184hp and SE, that has a total output of 218hp. The latter also produces a bit more torque at 330Nm (290Nm in E form).

Both deliver power via a single speed automatic transmission, with respective 0-62mph times of 7.3 seconds and 6.7 seconds. Both feel suitably EV-like off the line – nippy and immediate. The SE doesn’t feel much more powerful, but it’s still the version we’d buy for optimum Mini driving fun. A petrol-powered three-door MINI Cooper is also available.

What’s it like to drive?

You don’t have to travel far to feel the car’s inherent MINIness. The test cars we drove were fitted with 18-inch alloy wheels. They worked with the stiff suspension to deliver a firm, tightly damped ride that should feel familiar to MINI owners everywhere. We were certainly aware of the road’s texture beneath us without it becoming annoying, and it took the sting out of sharper intrusions.

Smaller, narrower wheels are standard and should give a little more squish if you prefer a bit more comfort, but you’re not buying a MINI for that, are you? It’s the handling that really matters in a MINI, and here the Cooper SE ranks amongst the best handling electric hatchbacks.

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The steering has a reassuring weight and precision that makes it easy to place, with a few messages from the front tyres relayed through the wheel’s rim. We found the Cooper E to be slightly more jittery on the road than the SE, as the latter’s suspension has been fettled with to accommodate the additional weight.

Both feel planted, with little body lean and sharp responses even with the larger of the two battery packs. You can certainly have some fun whether you’re on a twisting mountain pass or a roundabout, with limits far higher than most owners will dare tread. It serves up less jittery wheelspin frenzy than an Abarth 500e, especially in the wet, although there are petrol hot hatches that are more thrilling.

The brakes have good feel and a high level of regenerative braking when you come off the accelerator. Go Kart mode livens the throttle response, tightens the steering and adds a futuristic soundtrack that rises and falls far more convincingly than the Abarth. It’s telling the noise wasn’t turned off on the entire drive, partially because of the entertaining Pod Raceresque noises when braking heavily.