Getting behind the wheel of a Mini transports me to the getaway sequence in The Italian Job. Suddenly I hear “Getta Bloomin’ Move On” playing in my head. I want to race through the streets of Turin, down ancient steps, through rivers, and onto the roof of a stadium to foil the Carabinieri. All in a slim suit while doing my best Michael Caine impression. But after several days in this frame of mind, I found the new Mini Countryman SE plug-in to be far more convincing than my Cockney accent.
The Mini is a car that knows what it is. It’s not looking over its shoulder at the design elements of other cars for inspiration (assuming you don’t count previous Mini Coopers), and it indulges in its Mini-ness with elements like the big round chrome ocular command center, the Union Jack lines of the taillights, and racing stripes in the case of the model I drove. The double moon roofs add to a sense of interior expanse, and the physical scale of the Countryman is ideal––small enough to thread through city traffic and yet not at all cramped inside if you’re on the road for hours.
Whether you like the look of the interior is more a matter of taste than function. Self-consciously retro wears thin with me as a general rule, but I respect Mini for having the courage to consistently be what it is. From a tactile perspective, I would’ve preferred individual buttons on the infotainment system, rather than a plastic uni-plate where you push one painted button and the whole thing moves. And the back seat angle made the rear child seat attachment points awkwardly positioned. But these minor quibbles aside, the Countryman’s interior––particularly at higher trim levels––is well-crafted and delivers a certain euro-sporty luxury in a way only a Mini can. Standout details for me were the ovular shifter knob, the rounded interior door handles, and the sculpted leather seats.
“I’ll just run the engine for you, shall I?”
The Mini Countryman SE is a little like Adderall: speed you’re allowed to use. You’ll feel like you’re driving very fast without actually breaking any laws. Unlike some high-end sports cars that can feel sluggish until late in the RPM’s when you’re already plowing towards 80mph, the Mini Countryman SE manages to make your everyday 20-50mph zone feel mischievous. Off a dead stop, you can find the floor with the gas pedal without inciting a helicopter chase.
In all normal situations like parking, navigating traffic, and changing lanes––the Countryman is probably a much better size than the car you currently drive. And because of the combination of its svelte size and excellent driver visibility, I drove it much more quickly in traffic than I do faster cars. It just keeps shaving seconds off your drive because you can do everything that much faster when you can see exactly where you’re going and you know you’ll fit anywhere.
At low speeds, like backing out of your driveway or inching through a parking lot, it’s whisper quiet and all-electric, then the petrol engine joins the party when need be. It gets its 221 horses from the combined power of a 134-horsepower 1.5 liter 3-cylinder gasoline engine paired with an 87-horsepower electric motor, with the petrol powering the front wheels and electric in the rear, so to speak.
“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”
I normally drove it in Sport mode, like a filthy carbon hog, but I did pilfer some power from a plug-in station in a parking lot shared by a luxury condo and a grocery store. I only had it plugged in for about 30 minutes while I was shopping, but I certainly felt better about myself afterwards. It takes about two and a half hours to fully charge the battery, and you can get 17 miles of electric-only driving on a full charge. Which, in all reality, is plenty for my day-to-day city errands. The combined electric plus gasoline fuel economy is 73 MPGe, with 29 MPG when running purely on gas. There are multiple modes to select based on how you want the engine to prioritize how much electric it uses vs gas: an automatic mode that chooses for you, another mode that maximizes battery usage, and another that maximizes gas power. I left it on auto the entire time and never ran out of battery power, which I attributed to my valiant 30-minute charging session.
“Hang on, lads… I’ve got a great idea.”
For most people living in a city, this is probably the car you need. But with a starting price of $41,500, a little emotion or a lot of carbon consciousness would likely need to be involved in order to buy this car over its $33,900 all-gas counterpart. But if you plan to use this as all-electric for daily commuting and errands, and then let the petrol pistons fire for longer weekend trips, then I think the Countryman SE offers the best of both worlds.
