- The fun-to-drive Mini Cooper in an electric avatar

- Boasts Mini's design with an 8.8-inch touchscreen, digital instrument cluster, etc.

- Gets a 32.6kWh battery pack powering a 181bhp electric motor

The Mini Cooper SE electric hatchback is on sale in India as a single, fully loaded variant through the CBU route. This two-door car gets an electric motor producing 181bhp and 270Nm of torque. It draws power from a 32.6kW battery giving it a WLTP-certified range of up to 270km. We have tested it in real-world conditions on our designated route for determining fuel economy to get a fair idea about its actual driving range. Here's how it went.

The Cooper SE gets four drive modes – Mid, Sport, Green, and Green+. The standard setting, Mid, was automatically adopted as the vehicle was turned on. The AC was on and the regen setting was on high. Thus, indicated range of 138km wasn't accurate with the trip starting at 100 per cent battery. Our test involved heavy city traffic and moderate traffic on the highway for the entire range test.

Upon starting the test, we noticed the display range went up from 138km to 143km as the battery went down to 90 per cent. From here it consistently decreased and upon full depletion gave us a driving range of 225.7km. When the battery was under five per cent, the charging notification started showing up and the AC was restricted but not switched off. The MID stopped showing the range under 5km. Another thing to note is that the battery charge display bar on the MID is segmented into eight parts for 100 per cent. Each drop in the bar isn't a direct representation of how much battery percentage is available. However, the High regen setting kept assisting in braking and added a charge on regeneration.

To summarise, the tested range (225.7km) doesn't match the claimed range (270km), which isn't impressive in the first place. However, the good thing is that the Cooper SE does try to strike a balance between an acceptable city driving range and desired levels of performance as claimed by the manufacturer. We can vouch for the performance of this EV that does the 0-100kmph sprint in just 7.3 seconds. It didn't even go into limp mode when the battery was about to die and accelerated normally without any restriction on the throttle response. Our only complaint will be that the infotainment screen didn't show any charging point nearby when the battery was low.

In terms of charging, the Mini Cooper SE is capable of fast charging from 0-80 per cent in 36 minutes through a 50kW charge point. On the other hand, an 11kW wall box can charge it from 0-80 per cent in 150 minutes and it takes 210 minutes for a full charge. On our 7.2kW charger, it displayed 4hr45min (285 minutes) for a full charge from 0-100 per cent. Moreover, Mini provides a standard warranty of two years with unlimited kilometres on the Cooper SE. Besides, this EV doesn't have a direct rival due to its body style or even the niche segment it has created itself for.