2023 Mini Cooper SE First Drive: A Sign of Great Things to Come

Lively handling and expressive design have been Mini's hallmarks ever since BMW reinvigorated the marque for the 21st century, so it stands to reason that a brand like Mini could benefit massively from the onrushing electrification of the automobile. But so far, outfitting Mini's lineup of compact and subcompact models with motors and batteries has been slow going at best. To see how Mini has been coming along on its path to the inEVitable future of automaking, we jumped behind the wheel of its only all-electric powered offering at present, the recently updated 2023 Mini Cooper SE, for a quick spin.

In case you missed our initial coverage, the Mini Cooper SE isn't just an electrified version of the base Mini Hardtop coupe. Mini actually started with the hotter Cooper S trim when building its SE EV. Although it no doubt would have been better to start from a dedicated electric platform, we appreciate that Mini set out to lend some sportiness to its first-ever mainstream consumer EV.

When we first tested the 2020 Cooper SE, we enjoyed its entertaining driving dynamics and model-specific styling cues, but we also found it to be lacking in other areas. Mini attempted to make the Cooper SE a bit more appealing with a refresh for 2022 that included new technology, cosmetic changes, and most important an improved EPA-rated range of 114 miles.

Although the SE received the same exterior face-lift as the rest of the Mini lineup, which makes it look less distinctive and more like the regular Hardtop, SE badging and the addition of an optional tri-color gradient roof help set it apart slightly from its gas-powered siblings. Mini also reworked the Hardtop's interior with a reshaped dash and modified air vents, a standard digital instrument cluster, and a standard 8.8-inch infotainment display. And for the 2023 model, Mini added more paint and upholstery options, standard Apple CarPlay, and a new special Resolute Edition.

The Mini Cooper SE's new face is kinda cute, sort of like a pokémon you can drive, and it's only available in a two-door bodystyle—a positive to us in a world where the number of true coupes is drastically shrinking. The roof gradient effect is also very cool in real life, and Mini even affixes a small roof spoiler that enhances the sporty look. The inside is as distinctive as the exterior but remains fairly ergonomic despite the quirky design. As with the gasoline models, the SE's power switch is a tab that's laid out within a row of switchgear, adding a little bit of fighter-pilot fun to starting up the car.

Mini also equips the SE with a conventional shift knob, a reminder that this is a transitional vehicle between the existing line of Hardtop variants and what Mini says will be a dedicated EV platform in the future. Rather than positioning the regenerative braking mode selector as a click down from drive, Mini places the selector switch amid the rest of the car's hard controls on the center stack. Drivers can select between the standard Mid setting, the more responsive Sport mode, the frugal Green mode, and the super-conservative Green+ mode.

As one would expect, Sport mode is by far the best way to have fun in the Cooper SE. A single motor drives the front wheels, spinning out 181 hp and 199 lb-ft of torque. In our testing the Cooper SE hit 60 mph from a standstill in just 6.0 seconds, making it quicker than the 6.6-second run managed by the 2022 Cooper S Sidewalk Convertible we tested. Like one would expect from a traditional front-drive hot hatch, mashing the throttle yields some torque steer, but it's easy to overcome and gives the Cooper SE a feisty character.

While flinging the electric Mini hatchback along some country roads, we found it to be lively and tossable. Its steering is heavy and somewhat numb, but it's accurate enough and allowed us to explore the limits of the Cooper SE's communicative chassis. The default regenerative braking setting is aggressive but highly predictable and easy to get used to. We briefly sampled the less forceful regen setting but found it provided too little bite and required us to fuss with using the actual brake pedal.

The Mini Cooper SE has all of the benefits of a small car, and its clever battery packaging allows it to swallow the same amount of cargo as a regular Mini Hardtop. Navigating traffic, engaging in a spirited drive, and parking are all strong suits of the electrified hatchback. In this regard, it looks like Mini has everything going for it when it does move over to building electric vehicles from the ground up.

On the safety front, Mini offers a satisfactory suite of standard active safety equipment for the SE, including front collision warnings, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure warnings. Ticking the box for the Driver Assistance package adds adaptive cruise control, a head-up display, and a parallel parking assistant. Safety scores for the 2022 Mini Hardtop were fairly strong, with Good scores in every crashworthiness category from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

On balance, the Cooper SE is a solid car, and we'd be lying if we said we didn't have fun hurtling it up a mountain road. That said, there were a couple of disappointing drawbacks that held it back from maximum enjoyment. The first is obvious: only 114 miles of maximum range.

When we jumped in our SE test car at the staging area of the BMW Test Fest event, it showed 55 percent charge when we took off. A subsequent hill climb sapped a load of electrons from the SE's small 32.6-kWh battery.

Even though the route was short, the range anxiety was real as we watched the available miles tumble in real time. In the 16.7 miles we drove from our starting point to the turnaround spot, the battery dropped to 25 percent charge, with about 20 miles of remaining range indicated. Not sure if the descent would actually add enough range to get us back to the staging area, we fired up Green+ mode and carefully headed back down the mountain, attempting to recoup as much range as possible. The drive back didn't actually net us any more battery life, but we ended up with the same indicated remaining range and state of charge as we had at the highest point of our drive, a minor victory for the Mini.

The second frustrating thing we experienced was that the car cuts power when charging hard at full throttle in some applications. This impinges on its hot hatch character, making it hard to rely on for the sporty performance that it otherwise delivers so well. Finally, the Cooper SE rides fairly stiff and allows in a decent amount of road noise, so buyers who live in areas with a lot of poor roads should be wary.

And although we appreciate that CarPlay is now standard, the 8.8-inch infotainment display feels pretty small, partly because of its location within the giant ring that Mini still slaps in the center of the dash. To heighten the Cooper SE's appeal, it would behoove Mini to also include Android Auto in the future. These deficiencies make it hard to recommend the Cooper SE as it is to most folks that need something for anything more than city commuting.

As it stands, very few electric cars exist on the entry-level side of the market. Fortunately, Mini prices the Cooper SE on the affordable side, though its starting price comes out higher than rivals like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt EV, both of which offer more range and an extra set of doors. A Signature trim base model with no options starts at $34,750. Stepping up to the Iconic trim like the one we sampled adds roughly $2,500 to the starting price and picks up more customization options, a head-up display, piano black exterior trim, navigation with traffic monitoring, a garage opener, and parking sensors. With an optional Mini Yours Leather Lounge interior tacked on for $500, the Cooper SE we drove stickered at $38,250, a sum we're not shocked to see for a sporty and well-equipped hatchback. Either way, Mini packs a lot of features into a modestly priced vehicle.

It would be easy to write the Cooper SE off as a product with too little range that's too late to the electric vehicle party, but the updated version left us feeling hopeful for Mini's future when it fully leans into electrification. With a skateboard platform approach, Mini could outfit a future Hardtop EV with a much larger battery pack and bump the range up quite a bit. If that were the case, then this would be a much more compelling electric hatchback. For now, though, we recommend waiting until Mini is able to smooth out the SE's rough edges and get its range to a more acceptable level.