Mini was ahead of the curve when it toyed with electric drive tech back in 2009, with the experimental Mini E. But the program ran its course, and Mini shelved the electric Cooper, leaving the opportunity to upend the auto industry to a startup in Fremont . A decade later, Mini returned to the electric hatchback with the 2020 Cooper SE, picking up right where it left off. And with how much the car industry has changed in the last 10 years, it's a much taller task this time around.

A 2010-y 2020

The 2020 Mini Cooper SE so closely resembles the experimental 2009 Mini E that parallels must be ignored consciously. Like the Mini E, the Cooper SE is built from a standard Cooper architecture rather than a dedicated EV platform, meaning the only place to tuck the T-shaped, 32.6-kWh battery is by the rear axle, where the fuel tank is normally found. This wedges the SE's body up 0.7 inches, and inflates its weight to 3,153 pounds, though said mass is distributed roughly 50-50 front-to-back, and its concentration down low drops the SE's center of gravity 1.18 inches relative to a gas-powered Cooper S.

Dragging the whole shebang around by its front axle is a small AC motor plucked from the BMW i3 pushing out 181 horsepower—a slight downgrade from the Mini E's 200 hp in the name of battery lifespan. Still, it tows the SE from zip to 60 mph some 1.1 seconds quicker than the Mini E, though, and can achieve 110 miles of range without difficulty, and a cautious full-battery test would likely yield more than that based on average burn rates while driving around town.