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Mini Cooper SE Prototype First Drive Review | This electric hatch is a suburban belter

MUNICH, Germany — A battery-electric Mini SE? Haven't we been here before? Well, yes: A decade ago, as part of its "i Project," BMW conducted a worldwide field trial of some 750 lithium-ion battery equipped two-door Mini Coopers. It was launched at the 2008 L.A. Show, and the lithium-ion battery pack took up most of the space normally occupied by the rear seats. Nevertheless, interest in the 450 lease vehicles offered in the U.S. (at $850 a month) was strong, with more demand than cars available. One result of the 2008-2011 trial was parent company BMW learned that the average owner of a two-door Mini drives about 25 miles a day, and the company is hoping the battery Mini will be an ideal (sub)urban-run-around for two- or three-car families. Now BMW is about to launch a production Mini EV (based on the two-door model, but with the full complement of four seats), which goes on sale at the end of the year. This will join the Mini Countryman All4 plug-in hybrid in the electrified Mini stable, but while the Countryman has an EV range of about 12 miles, this battery Mini will travel around 120 miles on a single charge. The reason we can't be too definite about the new Mini's capabilities is that BMW isn't allowed to "advertise" the car this far in front of its on-sale date. We caught up with the prototype model, mummified in camouflage tape, at an off-the-road driving event held at BMW's Munich driving center on the former military air base of Furstenfeldbruck, now known as Maisach. The drivetrain is based on the middle model of BMW's i3 range, the i3S, with its 135 kilowatt/181 horsepower motor and 94 amp-hour, 33 kilowatt hour battery. The battery is a 96-cell lithium-ion unit from Chinese supplier CATL instead of BMW's previous supplier, Samsung, and it weights 441 pounds. Unlike the team-built, mainly carbon-fiber i3, the Mini is a standard three-door model that runs down the production line in Oxford, with a metal subframe that houses the electric motor, inverter, transformers, and control electronics so they can be slotted into place like a conventional driveline. We can extrapolate a few things about the Mini from the BMW i3S. As well as its working range of 120 miles, the i3S has a top speed of 100 mph and will accelerate from 0-62 mph in 7.7 seconds. With over 360 pounds more to pull about, the 2,998-pound Mini EV will be slower, with less range, especially if used in cold conditions.

Future Mini JCW models likely to be electrified

High-performance Mini Coopers need to be small, nimble, and relatively quick. One thing they don't necessarily need to be, according to the company's U.S. leadership, is gasoline-powered.  In an interview with Motor Authority, Mini USA Vice President Mike Peyton said that electrification is on the table for the range-topping John Cooper Works variants, which have traditionally been powered by a high-output turbocharged engine. The latest and greatest in the lineup, the 2020 Mini John Cooper Works GP, takes the formula to a new extreme, pairing a 301-horsepower mill with out-of-this-world aero. Peyton says that powertrains don't necessarily have to sound or feel the way traditionalists expect in order to be fun. It certainly doesn't have to feel that way in order to be fast; Tesla drivers can attest to that, as can those who have been fortunate enough to pilot some of the latest electrified hypercars.  He also acknowledged that while the future may be electric, that future is still a ways off. Mini is still waiting for advances in battery technology that will allow its performance models to deliver on other key expectations — namely handling. Minis are expected to be, well, miniature, and the additional weight of a current-generation, high-capacity battery is antithetical to that formula.  The take-away? The future of Mini performance is electric, but that future is still distant. So while the Mini Cooper SE and Mini E Countryman plug-in hybrid may give us a taste of Mini's approach to electrification, it could be some time before we see the company's highest-performance variants dabble in same space. 

BMW seeks partners for electric Mini, could make it an all-EV brand

LOS ANGELES — Germany's BMW is talking with other automakers "around the world" to try to find partners to lower the cost of electrifying its future Mini small cars, management board member Peter Schwarzenbauer told Reuters. "We are talking to many OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, not only in China, (about) how to electrify smaller cars," Schwarzenbauer said. "There's no final conclusion on it." Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor said last month it was discussing a possible venture to build Mini vehicles in China. BMW currently does not build Mini vehicles outside Europe. Schwarzenbauer declined to discuss the Great Wall situation, saying "this was speculation." However, he said building smaller electric cars was challenging, not only because of the financial costs, but also the engineering problem of fitting batteries with sufficient range into a smaller vehicle package. BMW has worked with rivals before to share the costs of clean vehicle technology. The automaker has a partnership with Toyota to develop fuel cell vehicles. BMW has said it plans to launch a new, electric Mini model in 2019. Eventually, Mini could become an entirely electric brand aimed at urban consumers, Schwarzenbauer said. Mini sales in the United States have fallen 10 percent through the first 10 months of this year, as demand for many smaller cars has waned in favor of sport-utility vehicles and trucks. "It's really only in the U.S. where we are facing this with Mini," Schwarzenbauer said. BMW will not try to reverse that trend by adding larger SUVs to the Mini lineup, Schwarzenbauer said. Instead, he said, "the way for Mini in the U.S. is ... building the Mini brand in the direction of the electric urban mobility company." On a separate issue, Schwarzenbauer said BMW intended to offer a self-driving car planned to debut in 2021 at a price that could be below $100,000. The iNEXT model, which BMW previewed earlier this year, will be offered to individuals, ride services fleets and put into service in BMW fleets, Schwarzenbauer said. "By 2021, you will have a lot of people who want to own this car," he said. "It will be a normal price. We are thinking of scaling this. To bring a $150,000 electric car is nice, but it will not really scale." When it launches, the iNEXT may not be offered with complete, so-called Level 5, autonomy because the regulatory and legal frameworks for such a vehicle likely won't be in place, Schwarzenbauer said.