The Fun-To-Drive Electric Car

It will look like a mini. And, most important, it will drive like a mini.

- Angus Mackenzie

Remember the Mini E, the first electric Mini? We drove it way back in 2008—and liked it a lot. Astonishingly capable and sharply responsive, the Mini E had a 201-hp e-motor and a 35-kW-hr battery that boasted a 100-mile range.

There was one not so small problem: the battery. The 5,088-cell lithium-ion arrangement cost about $30,000, added about 700 pounds and filled the space where the back seats and hatch would be.

After a spin in a prototype of the electric-powered 2020 Mini S E, we can confirm that it, too, is an astonishingly capable little car. It’s smooth, silent, and instant-on quick with razor-sharp reactions that will leave you grinning from ear to ear as you pinball it through the twisties. What’s more, it has exactly the same rear seat and load space as a regular two-door Mini Hardtop.

BMW sources insist on the production version of the S E, which is scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2020, will be “competitively priced.” What a difference 12 years makes.

The Mini S E has been a long time coming since BMW’s original science project, but there are good reasons for that. The 181-horsepower motor driving the front wheels is of BMW’s own design, as is the battery pack, which stretches along the floor pan tunnel and fills the space under the rear seat reserved for a regular Mini’s gas tank.