Fully Charged Takes MINI Electric Factory Tour And Test Drive

Car Reviews

MINI Electric, the new MINI EV with the heart of a BMW i3s.

Fully Charged’s Robert Llewellyn recently had an opportunity to visit MINI Oxford, South England, where the company launched production of the all-electric MINI Cooper SE (aka MINI Electric) in late 2019.

The approach of the British brand (part of the BMW Group) is simple – to flexibly produce an all-electric and conventional version on the same production line, which has pros and cons.

The car is based on the Mini three-door hatchback and UKL1 platform adapted to accommodate batteries and electric drivetrain. We guess that it’s all about the cost savings, which results in sacrifice of full EV potential. MINI had to introduce an electric car at some point to meet new emission regulations in Europe, and did it at the lowest possible cost and minimizing risks.

Despite that, the MINI Electric is probably the best MINI ever made as the advantages of an electric drive perfectly fit in the brand’s image.

The car looks amazingly good – especially in the red – drives smoothly and silently.

The main drawback seems to be the range of just 200-232 km (124-144 miles) WLTP or 110 miles (177 km) EPA (estimated). If only it will be a city runabout or a second car in a family, maybe it won’t matter that much though.