2025 Mini Cooper SE review

Despite looking the same on the outside, and from the inside, Mini now offers two distinct versions of its Cooper hatch range.

Like before, petrol versions are built on BMW bones called the UKL1 platform. It's an older chassis architecture used on the previous-generation Mini hatch range, while models like the Countryman use a larger UKL2 structure. The electric versions of the Cooper family are different, though. Rather than making an electric architecture fit a compact combustion-engine platform, Mini has turned to Great Wall Motors (GWM) for a co-developed architecture.

Does it make any material difference? A change in platform can sometimes make or break a vehicle, so we hit the road in the 2025 Mini Cooper SE Favoured to find out if the brand's appealing dynamics and playful nature have been maintained for a new generation.

With the new 2025 model, Mini has expanded the Cooper electric range. Last year Australian buyers could only access a single Cooper SE model with a paltry 222km claimed driving range. The new model comes in two variants, Cooper E and the sportier Cooper SE, with 271km and 362km of driving range (according to older NEDC testing) respectively.

The Cooper E starts from $53,990 plus on-road costs with a 135kW/290Nm motor, while the Cooper SE tested here kicks off from $58,990 and steps up to a 160kW/330Nm motor. An electric version of the high-performance Cooper JCW will arrive in Australia sometime in 2025.

Mini still offers the 'classic' combustion-engined Cooper S alongside, priced from $51,990 to $56,990 plus on-road costs. In this case you get a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine producing a slightly lower 150kW and 300Nm, and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic sending power to the front wheels.

Comparing like-for-like, the Cooper SE Favoured wears a $58,990 sticker, while the Cooper S Favoured is $4000 less.

Even from the entry-level, all Mini Coopers come standard with autonomous emergency braking, cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert as well as front and rear parking sensors, a driver's head-up display (but no traditional instrument cluster), and keyless entry and start.

Inside there's a 9.4-inch circular infotainment display with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, six-speaker stereo, cloth and faux-leather trim, sports seats and steering wheel, and a wireless phone charger.

By moving up to the Cooper SE and its 'Favoured' trim level, extra features like a panoramic glass roof, 18-inch alloy wheels, full faux-leather seat trim, electric adjustable front seats with heating in sportier John Cooper Works design, 10-speaker Harman Kardon audio, 360-degree cameras, lane-keep assist, speed-sign recognition, and adaptive cruise control are also added.

Mini doesn't have the trendy urban EV car park to itself, but its three-door form factor is somewhat unusual. Most competitors have opted for five-door practicality as either hatchbacks or compact SUVs.

The Jeep Avenger aims to bring classic Jeep design to the modern day (much like Mini has) and trades hard on that adventure heritage, even though the Avenger is a two-wheel-drive compact SUV. The $54,990 mid-spec Avenger Limited offers a 115kW/260Nm motor and 396km (WLTP) range.

If it's Euro and retro you're after, the Abarth 500e aims to deliver the throwback styling of the defining 1950s original in a package that's altogether more premium and fashionable. The styling is a blend of retro chic and colourfully aggressive. Priced from $58,900, the sporty 500e gets a 114kW/235Nm motor and delivers a claimed 252km of range.

If the performance side of the Cooper SE is more appealing to you, the MG 4 XPower may not carry the badge cachet of the Mini, but for $55,900 you get a larger hatch with a longer 460km driving range and an insane 300kW/600Nm, although it may not be as dynamically adept as the Cooper SE.

The Mini is also positioned right in the heart of EV territory with models as diverse as the Tesla Model 3, Smart #1, Renault Megane E-Tech, and Hyundai Kona all vying for attention at similar price points.

Make no mistake – the Mini is not big, but it's hardly compact either. Well, in relative terms.

There's no escaping this car's footprint. The Mini is just 3858mm long, 1756mm wide, and 1460mm tall, with a 2526mm wheelbase. That makes it much smaller than something like a Toyota Corolla hatch (but just a little taller). The impact is then felt in the interior, although not as much as you might think.

Mini's three-door form is a little unusual for a market that prefers five-door hatchbacks, but Mini's designers have taken this as an opportunity to maximise front seat space. You sit a little low, but have decent head room, and even though the interior is narrow, it never feels too hemmed in.

The one dimension that's lacking is the driver's footwell. The front-wheel intrusion pushes the driver's foot across, and drivers with big feet may find themselves brushing the brake when aiming for the accelerator.

Mini has removed the fold-down armrest from the previous-generation cars and replaced it with a fixed driver's armrest attached to the seat. To me it looks and feels like something you'd find on a cheap office chair and felt too high, and often in the way when trying to manoeuvre.

The new interior design themes rely heavily on textiles and interesting surfacing, so you get a fabric-covered dash and door trims, lots of ambient lighting, air vents that look almost hidden (plus one that actually is hidden directly below the infotainment). The dash lighting is projected for a cool mottled effect, and the door pulls are large plastic slabs. The design detail they impart looks great in photos, but feels a bit like outdoor furniture to the touch.

Controls are largely run through the touchscreen, but physical buttons and dials for drive modes, volume and track skip, gear selector, and some climate functions are retained.

Door pockets are a good size, and the console offers a wireless charge pad and a pair of cupholders within easy reach. There's a small lidded bin between the seats, but it opens toward the passenger and essentially blocks itself from the driver.

The rear seats are, naturally, on the smaller side. Access is via manual tilt and auto slide front seats to make getting in and out more spacious. The available entry space isn't massive, but nimble adults can make it work. At 169cm I had enough room, and if your front passenger is polite enough they can free up workable knee room. Slightly taller occupants will fit too, but not too much taller.

Whereas the previous Mini has almost no knee room, this one works much better. It's not seating you'll want to use all the time, but it's handy to have all the same. The rear seat is designed for two occupants, with a bump in the middle for some extra lateral support. There's no rear armrest or ventilation into the rear, though.

The boot is very compact. At just 210 litres, the compact footprint of the boot floor offers just enough space between the backrest and boot to squeeze in a laptop bag. You'll pop in a couple of grocery bags, or a quick shopping spree, but you'll often need to fold the rear seats for more space.

In an impressive point of difference from other new cars, Mini's new generation of products features a circular infotainment screen – not just a square screen framed by a round housing, but an actual 9.4-inch circular display.

Within Mini's Operating System 9 it looks great, with display elements configured to utilise the round display, and a series of 'classic Mini' throwbacks, like a full-size speedo that can be shown on the screen.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are offered via a wireless connection, though these show up square within the display, but the background wallpapers extend to fill out the space and make it look more integrated. The system also features FM and DAB radio, integrated satellite navigation with augmented-reality directions, and access to Mini Connected Services.

The Cooper SE also features a head-up display in lieu of a traditional instrument display – and this is handy as the speed info located at the top of the round screen feels just a little out of view.

The system is built on a version of BMW's latest infotainment platform, and has a lot of deep-dive menus, although with a much simpler visual language, the icons in the Mini are far easier to interpret than those of a BMW. Most of the transitions and animations are smooth, although CarPlay did experience some interesting glitches at times, though only ever briefly.

The deep-dive work Mini has done to give this car its own visual identity is significant. Things like the power-use meter, which turns into a spinning daisy as the car recuperates energy, are neat touches that give a tip of the hat to the Mini brand's pop culture emergence during the '60s and '70s.

The Cooper SE comes with three years of complimentary access to Mini Connected Services. Via a paired smartphone you can check your vehicle's location, remotely lock or unlock doors, precondition the cabin, check range and charging status, and more. Mini then offers a range of services with variable pricing depending on what you're after and how long you're looking to sign up.

Neither Australian testing body ANCAP nor European affiliate Euro NCAP have crash-tested the new Mini range at the time of writing.

It's important to note, too, that if this testing does take place, platform differences between the petrol and electric versions mean that results may differ between the two powertrain types.

The previous-generation Mini Hatch didn't exactly go overboard with safety and driver assist features, but this new model catches the Cooper up on the kind of tech you'd expect to see.

The Mini Cooper now comes with dual front airbags, front-seat side airbags, full-length curtain airbags, and a centre airbag between the front seats to prevent head-clashes in an accident.

Autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring with safe exit alert, and rear cross-traffic alert and intervention are all standard on the Cooper SE.

Driver assist tech covers speed sign recognition (linked to the cruise control and speed limiter), adaptive cruise control with steering assist, tyre pressure monitoring, auto lights and wipers plus high-beam assist, and parking assistant to help you get into spaces and reversing assistant that recalls your moves into a space to make getting out of a space easier.

On the road, these systems really shine. It's clear Mini's parent company, BMW, puts a lot of time and effort into ensuring these systems are tuned to feel natural and complement, rather than clash with, the driver.

Mini offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty on its vehicle range, although vehicles used commercially (as rentals or ride-share) are capped at 200,000km. The EV battery carries an eight-year/100,000km warranty – a match on time, but shorter on distance than most battery warranties that typically run to 160,000km.

Servicing can be accessed via either a four or six-year service plan. The four-year package is priced at $1200, while the six-year package is priced at $1775. Mini uses 'condition based' service intervals, which suggest maintenance when due rather than a set schedule. In most cases the likely interval will be every two years.

An annual insurance quote came to $1860 from a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The Mini Cooper E runs a smaller 41kWh battery, but the more powerful Cooper SE uses a larger 54kWh lithium-ion battery, and Mini quotes two different driving range figures. Under the WLTP standard used by most brands, Mini claims a 402km range, but under the NEDC test cycle (an older test method) there's 362km of claimed range.

In my time with the car consumption was lower than claimed, returning 13.5 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres versus 14.1kWh/100km as claimed. My time was spent doing the typical run to and from work in slow, but still moving, traffic. The weekend saw some more enthusiastic driving on the open road, but still nothing that dented range significantly.

Charging speed is capped at a low-ish 95kW, but given the small size of the battery, a higher peak charge rate may not make a huge impact by the time charging ramps up and down as the battery fills. At 95kW, Mini says charge times should be 30 minutes from 0–80 per cent. On a 50kW charger, a full charge would take an estimated one hour and 10 minutes, or around 53 minutes to 80 per cent.

Because of the relatively small battery, charge times on even slow chargers aren't particularly long, making it easy to grab charge and go on the road. At home, a 3.6kW (on a 16-amp power point) charger could see around 65 per cent of charge replenished in 10 hours. Enough to keep you running day to day without the need to install a dedicated charger.

Modern Mini cars have built a reputation for being agile and fun to drive. It's a big part of the traditional Mini appeal, but with an electric motor in place of a petrol engine and traditional transmission, does that reputation live on?

In most ways, yes. The Mini Cooper SE still has a playfulness to the way it drives. It doesn't hide the fact it's front-wheel drive, but it has been carefully honed and set up to deliver the best of what that means.

The 160kW electric motor feels strong, and yet it's never unruly. You can slingshot between bends without spinning up an inside wheel, or pushing into unchecked understeer.

The Cooper SE feels pert off the line, but not slingshot fast. You get a moment of scrambling off the line – playful rather than out of hand. It's also set to behave much like other BMW Group EVs with a surprisingly strong punch if you ask for overtaking urge at 70 or 80km/h. Almost imitating the kickdown of a traditional transmission.

The EV-style features of adjustable regen, through three steps plus an adaptive mode, are available. There's also a B mode, which prioritises brake regeneration, and this can be used as a one-pedal drive mode, with a nice smooth control. The handover from regen braking to physical brakes at low speeds can feel a little notchy, and the brakes are often noisy when operated at low speeds.

For anyone heading cross-country, road noise is well managed. High-pitched noises are filtered out (the annoying ones) but lower rumbles still make their way in, though not in any way that's unbearable.

Ride quality is firm, which pays to keep in mind. It's not stiff or rough, but it will thump over some bumps and dips in a very unflattering way. The upside is level cornering and good resistance to diving and squatting when braking and accelerating.

The only iconic Mini aspect that hasn't fully survived the transition to this new platform is the steering. It's still quick and nimble, but it feels a little dull. The fine feedback and adjustability of earlier Minis are missing.

Dial through Mini's 'experience modes' and you might recognise some of the kitsch names as more familiar drive modes. There's Core (normal), Green (or eco), and Go Kart (sport mode once upon a time), but then there's also Balance, Timeless, and Vivid modes that are more about the infotainment and ambient lighting situation than they are about the driving.

Go Kart gives a cheeky 'wahoo!' cry when selected, and definitely wakes the Cooper SE up. You'll find the acceleration more willing and the steering just a little weightier to enhance that expected Mini-ness.

Brimming with personality, packed with fun design features, and still as enjoyable on the road as it's ever been, the new Mini is a lot like the old Mini, just in a more tech-forward package.

The image a Mini Cooper conveys is paramount, and the new Mini delivers. Although the electric version may not be as closely related as its styling might suggest, Mini has meticulously woven its DNA into the car, and that hard work pays off.

With a design direction that screams Mini, and a focus on driving dynamics, the new Cooper SE easily slots into the Cooper S legacy. While it may not be the most versatile or powerful EV available for the money, it is one of the more eye-catching and what it lacks in space it makes up for in attitude.

For urban thrill-seekers looking to prioritise fun in a compact package, the three-door Mini well and truly delivers to the brief.

Mini dealers have a strong buffer of stock already, so arranging a test drive shouldn't be a problem. But if you have your heart set on a particular colour, you may have to wait a few weeks for delivery.

If an electric Mini appeals to you, you can find the full range of Mini electric vehicles for sale on Drive Marketplace. If you'd like to discuss colour and trim options, or arrange a test drive, you can do so at your nearest Mini dealer.

If you want to stay updated with everything that's happened to this car since our review, you'll find all the latest news here.