You’ve probably already seen one of the many leaked images online, but this is the all-new Mini Cooper in all of its glory.
Well, this particular car is actually the replacement for the outgoing Mini Electric, but that’s because for this new generation, Mini is bringing all of its littlest hatches under a new Cooper umbrella regardless of their powertrain.
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We’ll see the almost identical gas-powered Cooper soon, but the Cooper Electric shows us the new ‘Charismatic Simplicity’ design language. Essentially that has resulted in Mini taking as many bits as possible off the old car – so there’s no more chrome, no black plastic around the wheel arches, super short overhangs and flush door handles.
The classic circular headlights are present and flank an octagonal grille that has a whiff of ‘bottom-feeding fish’ about it. The Union Flag rear lights are gone too, although the new customisable units can be switched to have different signatures and there is a patriotic option. Generally we’re fans of the new look though. Oh, and there’ll be a Sport trim level that’ll bring fancier front and rear bumpers.
Mini says it is “taking a giant leap into the digital era” with this fifth-gen car, so the interior is dominated by a large circular OLED touchscreen in the center of the dash that apes the design of the original Alec Issigonis Mini. You can go even further too by switching to ‘Timeless’ – one of the seven different ‘experience modes’ that change the design of the screen and the colour of the lighting that’s projected onto the knitted dashboard. The other modes are Core, Green, Go-Kart, Personal, Vibrant and Balance in case you were wondering.
An optional head-up display is available to show some stats in your eyeline, and the steering wheel gets a strange fabric strip as its phantom third spoke. Cargo space is slightly down though from 211 in the Mini Electric to 200 in the new Mini Cooper Electric. Oops.
Oh, and we should probably talk about powertrains. There are two to choose from (E or SE), with the E getting a 40.7kWh battery and 305 kilometers of range on the WLTP cycle. That’s paired with a 181hp electric motor for a 0-100kph time of 7.3 seconds. The SE gets a larger 54.2kWh battery for 402 kilometers of range, plus a 215hp motor that drops the 0-100kph time to 6.7 seconds. Both get 95kW fast charging.
So, what else is new? Well, there’s a longer wheelbase and increased track width, plus new suspension and dampers. There’s a new Mini Operating System 9 based on Android Open Source Project software inside too, plus optional augmented reality navigation and a new voice assistant.
Note: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
