Mini Aceman SE Review: Like A Cooper, But Bigger

Erm, right. This one’s going to take some padding to get to a decent word count. We could save you a lot of time in giving our verdict on the Mini Aceman SE by directing you to our review of the smaller Cooper SE and saying ‘It’s like that, but a bit bigger’. But that wouldn’t be very good journalism, would it? So let’s have a proper go at this.

The Aceman is an all-new model from Mini, designed size-wise to slot between the Cooper — the car everyone will still just call ‘the Mini’ — and the Countryman, which has gained significantly more chonk for its third generation.

It’s the brand’s first car to be available solely as an EV, with no combustion version on the horizon. Indeed, it’s on an EV-only platform — a stretched version of the one that underpins the electric Cooper, co-developed by BMW and China’s Great Wall and totally different to the bones of the petrol Cooper.

For now, you’ve got two powertrain choices, both single-motor and front-wheel drive. The entry-level Aceman E gets 181bhp and 214lb ft of torque, while we’ve been driving the sportier SE, with 215bhp and 243lb ft. There’s a hotter JCW version coming very soon too, with 254bhp.

On the SE, those numbers translate to 62mph in 7.1 seconds, and a 105mph top speed. Because it also gets a bigger battery — 54.2kWh compared to the E’s 42.5 — you’re not punished on the range front, getting a quoted 252 miles versus 192 in the E.

Mini’s lineup now shares a pretty much identical interior setup, just scaled up or down a little depending on the model. This is a mixed blessing — we’ve talked at length about how this latest generation of Mini feels solidly built, and uses some unusual but very nice materials, with lots of eco-friendly knitted fabrics.

These will change depending on which of the three trim levels — Classic, Exclusive, and Sport — you opt for. We drove the Exclusive version which, as the name suggests, is the posh one. It gets the first of three tiers of optional equipment thrown in as part of the package, and front sports seats in some rather nice Vescin fabric.

Unfortunately, this family resemblance means the Aceman’s cabin shares a major annoyance with its siblings. That’s the big circular central display screen, which takes the place of the massive rev counter in Minis gone by. Without wanting to labour the point, it’s a bit of a mess – busy, poorly laid out and frustrating to navigate. You’ll also want that Level 1 pack because it brings a head-up display that means you’re not constantly having to glance at the screen to check your speed.

The Aceman has the same suite of ‘Experience Modes’ as its siblings too. Most just change the design of the UI and the sound of the augmented electric hum, but Go Kart and Green are analogous to Sport and Eco, and affect the throttle response and steering in the ways you’d expect.

The Aceman also gets a hilariously optimistic ‘Trail’ mode, which tells you off-roady stuff like the lateral and longitudinal angles the car’s at. This, in what’s essentially a front-wheel drive hatch with some plastic cladding, is surely the gimmick of the century.

Do the Aceman’s swollen dimensions actually make much of a difference to interior space? To an extent. On the Cooper, the back seats may as well be non-existent, whereas here, small children will be able to tolerate them on longer trips. Naturally, headroom’s better, and all-round visibility benefits too.

Where the relation to the Cooper SE is most welcome, though, is in the way the Aceman drives. There’s the same ultra-zippy electric throttle response, that same sense of slightly scrabbly excitement when you plant the accelerator from a standstill.

It corners in a similarly cheeky manner too, with an ultra-darty steering rack, well-weighted, talkative steering and oodles of grip. It’s way more entertaining to hustle along a country road than an electric crossover has any need to be, and — unlike the slightly ponderous Countryman — that nippy DNA that Mini’s so proud of can translate into a bigger car.

Obviously, it’s a bigger, heavier car than the Cooper — in fact, at 1785kg unladen, it’s quite the unit — so its responses aren’t quite as synapse-sharp and its grip limits are lower, but it does a very convincing job. The upcoming JCW version could be a properly exciting thing.

Unfortunately, the tradeoff is that it suffers a similarly choppy ride to the Cooper, too, which feels a bit less excusable in something more likely to be bought as a family car. Once again, though, it’s not quite as bone-destroying as its sibling.

The Aceman SE’s pricing kicks off at £36,300, with the basic car starting at £31,800. These figures put it right in line with other style-conscious baby electric crossovers like the Fiat 600e and Smart Hashtag One. We’re not sure any of them will be quite as fun to drive, though.

We’re also not entirely sure the Aceman is a car that needs to exist. Compared to the Countryman, the practicality gained over the trad Mini is marginal, especially considering there’s a five-door Cooper on the way soon. We also know that Mini’s past attempts to deviate from its Cooper/Countryman core have been a bit of a mixed bag.

The Aceman is a much more normal prospect than the likes of the wantonly weird Paceman, though, which should help its chances. Perhaps, in hindsight, it might also have been wise for Mini to offer a petrol equivalent, but the EV market’s so up and down at the moment that it’s basically impossible to call this.

Time will tell, then, whether the Aceman is another niche too far for Mini, but in the meantime, it’s proven again that a small EV can be good fun to drive – and that the brand’s reputation for sweet handling doesn’t have to be confined to the little Cooper.