The latest addition to the Spectro Racing stable is a 2022 Mini Cooper SE. That’s S for sporty and E for electric. Mini’s attempt at a production fully-electric BEV has been met with some pretty harsh criticism due to its anxiety-inducing maximum range of just over 100 miles on a full charge. In fact, the SE is receiving a complete ground-up redesign within the next couple of model years to address this shortcoming.

1,000 miles and a couple of months of ownership in, I’d like to share what the Mini Cooper SE is, and what it is not. Bottom line up front, I absolutely love this car and it has met or exceeded all of my expectations. That being said, those expectations were pretty well managed before I bought the car.

Here is what the 2022 Mini Cooper SE is not:

An only car. With the rare exception of a single person whose automotive needs were strictly urban, with at-home access to level 2 charging, I don’t see how this would be a good only car. You’ll somewhat regularly need to transport more than one passenger, or an item larger than a basketball.
A long trip vehicle. People are road tripping these cars, but it becomes an endeavor. It is capable of DC fast charging, but non-tesla DC fast chargers are hard to come by. Furthermore, the ones that are out there are generally unreliable and expensive.
A speed demon. It is no Tesla Plaid. I'm not sure it can even reach triple digit speeds. The 0-60 is a bit slower than the regular Mini S.

If we accept that it will never be any of these things, however, we start to address what it can do and we find that it does them extremely well.

First and foremost, it is fun. The difference between the SE and other “budget” BEVs or PHEV like the Bolt, Volt, i3, Leaf, Prius, etc is that the SE is a fun car first, and a futuristic transportation appliance second. Especially from the car enthusiast crowd, the early generations of EV’s all get a bad wrap because they are boring to drive (the first gen Leaf 0-60 is exceptionally depressing at 10 seconds) and they are styled obnoxiously. Much like a Dodge Challenger with a stick-on spoiler and underglow screams “I have terrible credit,” a BMW i3 or a Chevy Bolt shouts that not only are you not fun at parties, but you feel content commuting in a coffee maker. You appreciate the carbon fiber roof in the i3 not because of the lowered center of gravity, but because it offers more head room for your man bun. You enjoy taking the bus. No matter how hard one tries to appreciate the tech, these are tough cars to enjoy because they are simultaneously obnoxious and uninspiring to experience. Come to think of it, they are actually good arguments for taking the bus.

The Mini is a standout in this regard. You wouldn’t know it from any other Mini on the road unless you looked closely at the SE-only details like the green badges or the lack of a tailpipe. It announces the same thing that every other Mini does: the driver of this vehicle is fun at parties, they like to have fun, and they don’t take themselves too seriously. I have found that girls universally love the car, and that guys either embrace it as fun or dismiss it as being entirely too small to transport their massive, yet fragile ego. I’m not trying to claim that there aren’t times when one needs a big pickup truck, V8 sports car, or SUV. I certainly have used all of those regularly. If we are honest about our true transportation needs, however, the Mini SE is more than capable of providing those with comfort, style, economy, and enjoyment.

Here are my takeaways from the first 1,000 miles:

It is a good-looking car. I probably look a little silly driving it, but all in all I think it is an appealing car that mixes modernity with classic Mini style. The lights and the vertical front bumper vents are my favorite design details. The front and rear splitters are properly sporty.
It is well-equipped. The base model has everything you really need. It has wireless Apple CarPlay, heated seats and wheel, and a decently large touch screen infotainment with predictive lines on the backup camera. Other driver assists include haptic lane departure warning (which I turned off) and collision avoidance warning with optional auto-braking. I think it is silly to upgrade to the mid or Iconic trim packages for this car, but I think it would be nice to have an auto-dim rear view mirror and automatic radar cruise control. Skip the moonroof; the car looks great with a slick top and the headroom benefits considerably as well
It is exceptionally good at regular transportation. The car’s one-pedal regeneration is easy to learn and makes for very easy and smooth driving in real-world conditions. My favorite thing about the car is just how smooth and quiet it is to drive or ride in compared to a car with gears. The interior is surprisingly roomy and easily fits two people and a small dog or some groceries, which is to say the stuff you transport 90% of the time. The driving modes (Sport, Mid, Green, Green+) not only make sense but actually work as intended. I mostly drive in Mid and Sport.
The ability to “refuel” at home is extremely underrated. The only issue people discuss with EV’s is how slow they are to recharge and how much of a burden that is and why they need hundreds of miles of range to mitigate this issue. Charging speed is an issue only on long trips where you exceed the vehicle’s range. For regular driving, even with the Mini’s limited range, you’re unlikely to need to recharge before you park it for the night. It is a huge luxury to plug it in where you park it and never have to worry about scheduling a gas station stop.
The car is undeniably fun to drive. It isn’t fast but it is very quick; in most of the real-world scenarios where you need to quickly put on some speed stoplight to stoplight, it absolutely rips. The immediacy of the electric drive train makes it effectively faster than it is on paper. Furthermore, its quietness makes you feel like you can hoon under the radar without disturbing the peace. The stock suspension is, and I mean this sincerely, the best handling of any stock car I have driven. The ride firmness is spot on, and the low center of gravity provides tenacious grip. It handles like it has lots of negative camber and stiff swaybars, even though it doesn’t. My only complaint is that the car has a lot of torque steer. Front wheel drive, open diff, and lots of torque will do that.

I ordered this car thinking I would take the $7500 tax credit and run, quickly dumping the car for something else. Instead, I have fallen in love with the experience of commuting in this fun Cooper. It offers the “driving a slow car fast” experience of turning a boring commute into a fun driving experience, all the while without the guilt or expense of burning a bunch of gas or making a lot of noise. I cannot overstate what a luxury that charging at home is, either. After driving the SE for awhile, I drove my E39 M5 again for a couple of weeks and I felt like I was putting gas in it every day. Now, the M5 isn’t the most fuel efficient vehicle, but I found that I was having to plan my days around filling the M5 up and would be annoyed when I got in it in the morning and it was running low. The M5 is a blast to drive, but caring for it is a lifestyle. The Mini is fully charged every morning. It requires basically zero maintenance, and has a warranty. The regen works so well that the brakes will probably last forever. Furthermore, I’ve found that unless you’re driving more than about 60 miles a day, you can get by just fine with the included Level 1 110V AC charger. The level 2 charger is nice to have for sure, but generally speaking you very rarely require the increased charging speed at home.

Would I prefer to be piloting a face-meltingly fast quarter-million dollar Taycan Turbo S? Sure. Is the Mini SE fun, exceptionally convenient, and economical at roughly $25k after tax credit? Absolutely.

News

Spectro Racing ON YouTube

Partners