First Drive

The New Mini Cooper SE Is BMW’s Best Electric Effort Yet

If the production vehicle is as good as the prototype we test-drove, BMW Group has a winning, if humble, all-electric daily driver on its hands.

Electric Mini Cooper SE

Source: Mini

Last Saturday, after the first day of Formula E races in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Red Hook section, when the heat had so baked into the city’s asphalt it felt like the inside of a cast-iron pot, I, too, was able to get behind the wheel of the future: the all-electric Mini Cooper SE.

BMW Group’s next shot at the all-electric, daily driving market for the masses—its 2013 release of the i3 city car was an underpowered flop—is positioned as a $36,400 challenger to the Tesla Model 3, the current segment leader.