Test of the Mini Countryman: Fun, but is it enough?

In Norway, 327 different electric SUV models are currently sold. The figure is taken from the Information Council for Road Traffic (OFV) and includes the many almost identical equipment versions, so it may well be taken with a small pinch of salt. The truth is, however, that the selection of slightly high-rise, electric cars – which Norwegians love – is large.

What Norwegian electric car buyers haven’t really had access to is an electric SUV with a bit of humor and resilience. Until now.

Fun behind the wheel?

It can be fun to throw a powerful electric car into a sharp turn. The Tivoli feeling of feeling the G-forces is absolutely present.

After testing the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N in South Korea, it became obvious that an electric car does not need to be terribly expensive to be fun on the track. Of course, it helps with 650 horsepower, but the car itself can hardly be described as distinctly humorous.

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Car manufacturers, whether from Japan, the US or Germany, are generally careful not to put in what could be perceived as silly elements or retrospect that are strictly unnecessary.

It may seem that most car manufacturers prefer to sell serious, tight cars where the fun comes in the form of driving pleasure (for some of them) – not that the car should be cute or make you smile.

This is not how Mini thinks, which is now coming with a completely new and for the first time electric version of the family car Countryman.

BMW based

The new Mini Countryman is 4.44 meters long and 1.84 meters wide. It’s obviously not a huge car, but it’s big enough for a slim family to fit in. The luggage compartment swallows a relatively acceptable 460 litres, while the backs of the three rear seats can be individually adjusted by up to 12 degrees. If all the seat backs are completely folded down, there is room for 1,450 litres.

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The test of the new Mini Countryman takes place in Portugal, where parent company BMW also has the BMW iX2 SUV based on the same platform.

This means that these cars, in addition to the BMW iX1, are natural to compare. Unfortunately for the Mini, that means you note an interesting difference: the BMW iX1 holds 490 liters in the boot while the iX2 takes 525 litres.

Then it’s good to be aware of the price difference at the same time, because it must be cheaper to choose an electric Mini over a BMW, even if the technical foundation is the same. A BMW iX1 costs from NOK 507,300, an iX2 costs NOK 520,800, while the Mini, which also has four-wheel drive, costs NOK 460,600.

Lots of engine

That the new electric car version of the Mini Countryman is related to its serious siblings from Munich is easy to see from the figures. Here there are – similar to what you find in the iX1 and iX2 – two electric motors, four-wheel drive and 313 horsepower. Individually, the two engines produce an acceptable 190 horsepower each and 0 to 100 should go away in 5.6 seconds.

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However, this is not what distinguishes the Mini Countryman from BMW or the other car brands. The difference lies in how Mini has designed its car and especially the inside has some charming features.

The whole car is new, but the screen in the middle is extra fun, which for the first time on a production car is a round, high-resolution OLED screen.

Working too hard

With a physical button below the screen, you or the passenger can choose between seven different “modes” in which the interior lighting, appearance, fonts and colors on the screen change.

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If, for example, the so-called “Go-Kart Mode” is selected, the driving characteristics are also changed so that the car becomes more sporty, while “Vivid mode” provides colors and lights that reflect the songs you play.

These are fun elements that you will struggle to find in competing cars, and if you are the type to allow yourself to be fascinated by such things, the new Mini Countryman will undoubtedly appear more alluring than before.

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Unfortunately, it must be mentioned that the infotainment system works hard with the change of all this fun graphics change, so some elements are more choppy than you would like. Maybe this is just a problem on the test car in Portugal, but it doesn’t bode well anyway.

Is Mini too stingy with the processing power of the system they spend a lot of time bragging about?

It is not inconceivable that all this can be solved with a software update, which should be around the corner anyway, because on the test trip the navigation strangely disappears every time we test a new “mode”.

Bad battery

That Mini is a car brand where humor is central is certain. However, it may be that the engineers should spend a little less on pranks, and a little more time to get a decent range, because this is a puzzled 432 kilometers measured according to WLTP. The background is that the battery only measures 64.6 net capacity and therefore Mini is struggling with the same problem that Finansavisen has pointed out during testing of the BMW iX1 and iX2.

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Over at Tesla, the best-seller Model Y is available with a full 533 kilometer range for a similar price, since Tesla delivers its cars almost fully equipped.

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It is almost incomprehensible that BMW and Mini can come out with brand new electric cars where the range is not better. It must of course be borne in mind that the aforementioned 432 kilometers are based on gentle driving in warm weather – not in harsh winter weather in Norway, where the range must necessarily be even worse.

It would have been handy if the new Mini Countryman had saved itself with an outstanding effect on the fast charger, but the car does not impress here either. Only 130 kW is the maximum speed you get – just like the iX1 and iX2.

For the record, it can be assumed that an Audi Q4 e-tron has a maximum charging power of 175 kW, while a Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a whopping 220 kW. It is also part of the story that maximum power is only one element when time spent at the fast charging station is considered. How high the average power the battery can manage over time will also be decisive, something BMW in Finansavisen’s tests has proven to be good at.

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In Portugal, this was not tested, but is something we will return to when the Mini Countryman is available in Norway.

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Little tempting

It may look a little dark for the sale of this Mini in Norway. Norwegians love range and then the choice often falls on the electric cars that deliver solid figures, even if the sale of the Toyota bZ4X is proof of the opposite. In any case, it is a consolation for Mini that the driving characteristics of the new Countryman do not disappoint at all.

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The acceleration is powerful and the driveline’s precision high. This is a car you can certainly have fun with on a winding road, and for some that may be more important than range and charging speed. The car can be delivered with adaptive shock absorbers which generally make the ride more comfortable on a daily basis, and more sporty when you want to drive actively.

With its sporty seating position, round OLED infotainment screen and well-built interior, there is a lot to like about the electric Mini Countryman, but it remains to be seen whether this is enough to convince a larger number of electric car-hungry Norwegians.

The fact that short range appears unattractive is probably something that will not change anytime soon.

This article was previously published by Finansavisen Motor.