All-Electric MINI Cooper Test Drive Review 2024

Anthony Hibbs took a test drive of the new all-electric MINI Cooper.

Anthony was contacted by Lookers Stoke within 1 day of making his initial enquiry via Electric Road and took his test drive on 28th October 2024.

Please provide an OVERALL RATING for the electric car

Rate the electric car on its exterior

What did you like/dislike like about the exterior?

The car I had on the 24-hr test drive was bright yellow with a white roof, very striking indeed 😎 I liked the general design, particularly the front view, so obviously a MINI. The rear however was very underwhelming, even the well spaced C O O P E R badge didn’t look quite right. Paint depth, panel gaps and the general exterior quality were excellent. The wing mirrors are huge! They give a good wide view though.

Rate the electric car on its interior

What did you like/dislike like about the interior?

I absolutely loved the interior, so much detail and so many different textures, an absolute delight. The seats are particularly good, multi-panelled and with great details like the MINI logo. Comfortable too and easily adjustable to my 6’ 2” frame.

The doors and dash are also textured and full of detail, the purely aesthetic ‘strap’ above the glove box with its multi-coloured stitching particularly impressed me, attention to detail right there. The steering wheel was pleasant to use, very chunky and solid. Lots of sensible storage too, glove box is a decent size, two practical cup holders and good centre console bins and recess.

Rate the electric car for its tech features

What did you like/dislike about the tech features?

I tinkered with just about every setting, mode and gadget during my 24-hr test. There is an ‘Experience’ mode for all tastes, from sedate ‘Green’ to absolutely outrageous ‘Go Cart’ mode. The dash layout does take some getting used to though. The huge round central screen is where everything is at, it really dominates the driving experience. In a good way by day but unfortunately at night, even with the display set as dim as possible, it becomes very distracting.

The Heads Up Display is useful but looks awful. It’s a small clear panel which looks as if it should fold down into its recess but doesn’t. I’ve experienced much better HUD where it’s projected onto the windscreen. The switch panel under the round central screen is also disappointing. The centre switch is like a fixed key, you turn the car off and on with this, most odd.

The radio and volume button to the left feels really cheap and nasty. And the drive selector switch, what is that about? A stalk or column selector would be far better, annoying after only a few hours. Tech generally worked well and was easy to use with two exceptions: the radio, which came on every time I started the car and the climate, which was set at 22°c as standard and I could not find a setting to change this. So every time I started the car I had to turn off the radio and turn down the heat!

The interior ambient lighting at night was a revelation. ‘Textured’ light on the top of the dash, a nice strip along it and very subtle footwell lighting made the car delightful to drive at night, except for the bright display of course. The car key was a monster, absolutely huge. Keyless entry seemed to work for about 10 metres. If I left the key in my pocket anywhere in my house, the car on the drive would unlock and lock constantly. Faraday pouch required I think.

Go Cart mode alone made up for the niggles though, the ‘MINI Sound’ is just whacky and the display is the only one that’s good at night.

Rate the electric car for how it drives

What did you like/dislike like about how it drove?

Typical MINI, this car drove as if it were on rails! Totally without roll or under and oversteer, superb! Let down however, by its jittery suspension on our crumbling roads. This in fact would be a deal breaker, spoils an otherwise great car. It’s better at speed on better roads but then the intrusive wind and road noise disappoints.

I had auto hold and automatic handbrake on and mostly drove in regen mode, this didn’t make for a smooth pull off but did effectively give car one pedal driving. Range seemed to be around 250 miles with my mixed driving messing about with modes, that’s acceptable to me. So, not for me, but a well-built capable and interesting EV.