New Mini Cooper Electric doubles the driving range of its predecessor
The new electric Mini Cooper is here - built on the 5th generation of the Mini and improving greatly on the Mini Cooper SE first introduced in 2019. For the first time, there are two power outputs available to choose from and two new batteries are addressing the biggest issue with the previous model - its range.
As expected, the company is shifting its attention towards all-electric models after the Mini Cooper SE became its best-selling model last year. It sold 43,000 units worldwide which represents 20% of all Mini vehicles sold globally - that’s a big number for a little car.
When the new Mini Cooper Electric goes into production this coming November, it will be available with two powertrains. The 135kW unit (181hp) that we already know from the current model is reserved for the Cooper E version. It will be joined by a more powerful 160 kW (215 hp) in the SE version which should bring back the performance Cooper is associated with.
Even bigger improvement comes to the battery department. Gone is the tiny golf cart-like 28.9 kWh pack replaced with the new 40.7 kWh battery. This option should be enough to deliver 300 km of driving according to the company. The Mini Cooper electric SE gets an even bigger battery pack with 54.2 kWh capacity which should be enough for 400 km of driving. That’s double what the current model can dream of.
Mini Cooper Electric will be manufactured alongside its sibling Mini Countryman at the Leipzig factory in Germany. The car goes into production this November and once it goes on sale, it will be joined by the Mini Aceman in 2024. The company is not sharing any performance figures yet and keeps the prices secret but we can expect the new Mini to be slightly more expensive than the current model - we should expect the E model to start around €35,000 in Europe and the SE version probably around €39,000.
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