Mini Cooper SE India bookings to open this month

Mini India has teased the Cooper SE on its social media handles, hinting at its imminent launch. The company will likely open bookings for the Cooper SE by October 29, while the price announcement is expected in February or March next year. According to dealer sources, only 30 units will be allotted for India in the first batch and deliveries will begin from April. The Cooper SE, the brand’s first all-electric car introduced globally in 2019, will come to India as a CBU in a single, fully loaded variant.

 

The Mini Cooper SE could be the first all-electric model to go on sale in India from the BMW Group. For the uninitiated, the Cooper SE is based on the Cooper 3-door hatchback, and, while both cars look near identical, the SE swaps the internal combustion engine for an electric motor and a battery.

The Cooper SE looks near identical to the standard Cooper hatchback that people have come to love so much. All traditional elements of the Cooper’s design, like the round LED headlamps, the Union Jack-themed LED tail-lamps and, of course, that familiar silhouette, have all been retained. 

 

There are, however, some key differentiators like the blanked-out front grille with a new ‘E’ badge, a slightly reprofiled front bumper, a redesigned rear bumper that does not need to house exhaust pipes, and the yellow accents on the door mirror caps and wheels. Speaking of which, the distinctive wheel design on the Cooper SE is made to look like a British plug-socket. It also sits 15mm higher than the combustion-engined model to allow clearance for the battery pack. The Cooper SE will be offered in four colour options in India – White Silver, Midnight Black, Moonwalk Grey and British Racing Green. 

On the inside, again, the cabin of the Cooper SE is instantly familiar. The overall dashboard design is very similar to the standard Cooper hatchback – a key highlight is a new digital instrument cluster, the Cooper SE being the first Mini to be equipped with one. The only other difference is a new toggle switch on the centre console for the multi-level brake-regeneration system, with the yellow accent being carried over to the interior as well. Mini says the interior and boot space remain largely unaffected by the new powertrain.

 

Here are some of the key exterior and interior feature highlights of the Cooper SE in India. 

 

The Cooper SE is powered by an electric motor that produces 184hp and 270Nm of torque, drawing juice from a 32.6kWh battery mounted beneath the passenger seat in a T-shape. Power is sent to the front wheels only, resulting in a 0-100kph sprint in 7.3 seconds and a top-speed of 150kph. The Cooper SE also gets four drive modes – Mid, Sport, Green and Green+ – and the powertrain, incidentally, is shared with the BMW i3 hatchback.

 

The Cooper SE has been optimised to find a balance between an acceptable city driving range and desired levels of performance, which results in a WLTP-certified range of 235-270km. Mini says the Cooper SE is capable of fast-charging from 0-80 percent in 35 minutes via a 50kW charge point, while a 11kW wall box can charge it from 0-80 percent in 150 minutes – or 210 minutes on a full charge.

As things stand, the Cooper SE will not have any direct rival in India as the likes of the Mercedes EQC, Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron models are significantly larger and pricier. It will, however, be the most affordable luxury EV in India when launched.