Hats On For BMW’s Electric Mini

You have to give credit where credit is due. When the Bavarian automaker is on a run, nobody can stop them. After some amusing comments from a board member about electric vehicles, firing the CEO, interspersing some profit warnings, BMW tops that off with presenting the new electric Mini.

And nobody can tell them how a Mini from BMW has to look like. Already in 2020 the Mini Cooper SE shall become the Tesla-killer and make the life of the 2017 Model 3 tough. Well, maybe. Or maybe it does that to the 2016 Chevrolet Bolt. Wait, wait, rather the 2016 model of the Nissan Leaf?

Anyways, who cares about such details? from 0 to 60 km/h in 3.9 seconds … probably downhills. And from 0 to 100 in 7.3 seconds. One could almost see the back lights of the Leaf and Bolt, weren’t there too much dust thrown up from the super fast Model 3.

Range anxiety with the Mini? Not, if you switched from the Nissan Leaf. A battery with 32.6 kWh makes the Mini to up to 270 kilometers – when there is some wind from the back – but more realistic are 230 kilometers. That makes the BMW heart jump out of joy, then this is a quantum leap when you consider the Nissan Leaf’s deplorable range of 172 kilometers. But the announced Mini gives Model 3 and Bolt drivers the last real adventure: am I able to reach my destination or have to charge again?

That all is available for inexpensive €32,000. Starting 2021. Haste makes waste! Those who want more performance for almost the same price today – and not wait for the technology of the past another two years in the future – can calmly walk to a Tesla-store, or the Chevrolet and Nissan dealerships and buy.

	Model 3	Nissan Leaf	Chevrolet Bolt	Mini Cooper SE
Battery [kWh]	50	30	60	32.6
Charging speed [kW]	up to 250	50	54	50
Range [km]	354	172	380 – 520	235 – 270
0 to 100 km/h [seconds]	5.6	6.85	<7	7.3
Price starting at	€39,780	€36,800	€39,330	€32,500
Available since	2017	2010	2016	2020

The emotions of BMW’s electric mobility, as BMW board Pieter Nota said at the Mini’s presentation, cannot be underestimated. I recommend adding a box of Kleenex to each sale, so that buyers can wipe from their faces the salty tears of disappointment from turning them into an “Audi e-tron-moment” and short circuiting leaky batteries.

The words of BMW head of development Klaus Fröhlich – who outed himself as a talented seer – turn out to be true. Europeans are certainly not buying electric vehicles … from BMW. The best way to predict the future is by not making it.

Hats on for the Bavarian automaker.

This article was also published in German.