Mini Green Cars

Among the various special editions and artistic interpretations that have distinguished the MINI brand’s history, the most recent one in chronological order is the MINI Strip by designer Paul Smith. The car was unveiled in London a few days ago. It is a one-of-a-kind example based on the notion of sustainable design. The goal was to simplify the car as much as possible without giving the impression that it had been stripped down.

As part of the BMW Group, the Mini brand is also slowly moving toward electrification. The British brand is now offering a hybrid version of the Countryman and an all-electric variant of the Cooper (called Mini Electric), but it wants to expand further. Next on the list, according to Mini, is a John Cooper Works model, and the company is already working on concept cars that will preview a high-performance EV.

Mini is attempting to take the electric car market by storm, and it’s doing so with the 2020 Mini Cooper EV – a model that Mini claims it already has 15,000 orders for on the U.S. market alone. It comes with a 32.6 kWh battery that Mini says is good for 168 miles of range – a figure that’s considerably lower than the competition The Nissan Leaf +, for example, offers up 226 miles while the Chevy Bolt delivers 238 miles.

Range aside, the Mini Cooper EV has a single electric motor that’s good for 181 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque. Mini claims it’ll hit 60 mph in 6.9 seconds, so highway merging should be simple enough, but top speed is limited to 110 mph.

The interior isn’t all that different from the standard Cooper, but it does come with the 6.5-inch navigation system. There’s also a new “Dynamic Digital Instrument cluster” with a digital speedo and new indicators for charge level and range. Overall, however, the Cooper EV is a mini through and through.

As far as charging goes, there’s going to be a little bit of compromise. If you use the standard charging cable that Mini considers “occasional” and plugs into a standard 120-volt outlet, you’ll get a full charge in 24 hours. Us the TurboCord and a 240-volt outlet, and you’ll get a full charge overnight or in about 8 hours. The Level 2 home charger, that you’ll undoubtedly have to pay for, gives you a full charge in about 4 hours. A DC public charger system will give you an 80-percent charge in 40 minutes, so you’ll at least be okay out and about.

The intrusion of electrification into the market has not just changed the mechanical dynamics of a car, but has also brought in a new design philosophy altogether. But, let’s be real here for a minute. If there was one car or brand from the current crop that can nonchalantly slip into EV clothes, it is the Mini Cooper. Automakers are adopting crazy-ass designs for their EVs that may or may not please consumers, but an electric Mini? It can’t have any haters; in the looks department at least. However, it looks like the car is dead on arrival because things look pretty only on the outside. Going by the initial impressions, I’d say Mini missed a huge opportunity to make a name for itself.

Mini has officially entered the EV fray, and we have finally uncovered the proof. To be honest, Mini Cooper is one of the very few cars from the current combustion-engined crop that could slip into an EV avatar without any cosmetic changes. We have seen automakers going bonkers with the so-called ’futuristic’ designs with slim headlights, sharp cut lines, etc. But in contrast, the Mini Cooper gels well with those electric cars with its retro, rounded looks, and Mini seems to understand that. The 2020 Mini Cooper SE has been spotted sans camo doing some all-electric testing. This electric Mini is based on the Cooper S and looks largely similar to it albeit with a few minor changes. Will the retro-looking Mini Cooper SE make a name for itself in arguably the most competitive segment in the right now?

Ten years after Mini introduced the Mini-E electric prototype, the German automaker is finally on the verge of launching its first-ever production electric model. MINI is presenting initial design sketches of its future fully electric production model. The pair of sketches show two distinct sections of the all-electric Mini, one of which we already saw in the concept version that was unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Plug-in cars are the future, and the MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 seeks to prove they can be both practical and fun to drive.

And we’re not talking fun to drive in the “let’s see how far I can go on a tank of fuel” sense. We’re talking in the traditional, pedal-to-the-metal sense.

In a lot of ways, the MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 succeeds in its mission. In one important way, however, I felt like it needed a little work.

The 2018 New York International Auto Show is now in full swing, and MINI is getting in on the action with the debut of a unique new version of the Cooper SE Countryman ALL4. Rocking a select group of updates “specially designed for extremely challenging routes,” it’s a fresh take on mixing electric and gasoline motivation in a stylish British package.

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