MINI COOPER SE

Fourth-generation Mini hatch arrives in spicier electric form, with a much longer range for the same money

- MATT SAUNDERS

The latest 'new Mini' represents an interesting change of tack for its maker - and in more ways than one. First, there's the nomenclature departure. In its fourth generation, the hatchback is the Mini Cooper in a formal make-and-model sense (there will be no more Mini Ones, Mini Electrics etc). Second, there's the technical shift: although the ICE version survives to mirror it as part of a broader model range, the all-new Mini hatchback is, in point of fact, electric-only, because the ICE version is ostensibly a third-generation model with a new body and a new interior. And third? Well, as we will come to shortly, that's all about the fine detail of the electric version's execution.

This is a slightly different kind of electric Mini, I'd say, in its appearance, positioning and make-up: more mature- and sophisticated feeling, and a little more versatile and usable with it, but also just a little less of a singular, fun-loving kind of car. Less of a sporting statement car, more of a premium prospect. The same but different.

The Cooper, then, comes as a petrol-engined C or S (built-in Oxford by Mini) or as an electric E or SE (built-in Zhangjiagang by Spotlight Automotive, the BMW Group's new joint venture with Chinese firm Great Wall Motor).

Drives in ICE cars should come in the UK in the next few weeks, but Mini put on a pan-European launch event in Spain for the EVs.

So there are two electric Minis now, and critically both offer a bigger battery and a longer range than the famously nippy-butshort-legged old Mini Electric.

The E gets a new nickel manganese-cobalt battery with 36.6kWh of usable capacity, up from 28.9kWh in that predecessor car, and an official range of +190 miles, up from 140, with prices starting from just under £30,000. That's Mini delivering a 36% boost in range and the same peak power for broadly the same money. Not bad.