MINI Electric Countryman SUV (2024 - ) review

While the price of an electric Countryman is higher than the petrol equivalent, lower running costs will go some way to help balance out the total cost of ownership. This is especially true for company car drivers who will benefit from lower Benefit In Kind. If you are also able to charge at home things will look rosier still. However, delving through Mini’s extensive list of options may put a dent in those cost savings. But hey, it’s got to be worth upgrading to the Sport styling for those go-faster stripes!

As this is an all-new model it’s too early to get a feel for reliability, however you can take confidence in the knowledge that the Countryman shares its foundations with BMW. As with all electric cars there are also fewer mechanical parts to go wrong and much less to maintain. This is reflected in the cost of Mini’s service plan for the electric Countryman compared to the petrol version. All Minis are covered by a three-year unlimited mileage warranty, and you’ll get eight years or 100,000 miles of cover for the battery with roadside assistance also included.

The new Countryman Electric gets a decent list of safety kit as standard, including blind spot monitoring which is one of our favourite features and often a cost option on other cars. You’ll also get other driving assistance features such as cruise control, rear collision prevention and forward collision warnings with emergency braking. Parking should also be a doddle with the help of parking sensors and a rear-view camera. Higher level cars gain Driving Assist Plus which adds a front camera and radar sensors to provide adaptive cruise control, automatically adapting to the speed of the car in front and changing your maximum speed setting based on the road signs. Top of the range cars take this a step further with the ability to steer the car and keep you in the centre of your lane.

From the second you open the door of the new Countryman there’s a real wow factor. It’s recognisably Mini with its large circular central screen, twistable start button and flickable drive selector, but it is also very modern. Mini has struck the perfect balance between retro and minimalism, avoiding the trap of becoming too kitsch or boring during the process. You have a choice of three different styles: Classic, Exclusive or Sport, each with different patterned fabrics, a large proportion of which is made from recycled fibres. The texture of the knit is further enhanced by the ambient lighting design. The cabin feels spacious and airy, particularly on cars equipped with the Level 2 pack which gain a panoramic sunroof. There’s plenty of headroom and you’ll get two adults comfortably in the back, but adding a third in the middle might make things rather cosy. The rear seats recline for maximum comfort and have a 40/20/40 split which is sure to come in handy. The boot should easily swallow up all the essentials for family life with some useful hooks, and a split-level floor adding to the flexibility. Once out on the road refinement is generally good, but the Countryman Electric is a heavy car, and this is more noticeable over uneven surfaces. For the most part however it hides its weight well and the interior of the Countryman is a lovely place to be.

In addition to three different styles there are three option packs with increasing amounts of additional features. While upgrading your Countryman is tempting, the entry-levels cars still come with a reasonable number of bells and whistles. These include the central 24cm diameter OLED screen, ambient lighting, two-zone climate control, sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a heated steering wheel. You’ll also get different ‘experience’ modes, each with their own characteristics, visualisations, and soundtrack. Higher level cars get up to eight experience modes, but Core, Green and Go-kart modes come as standard. Our favourite mode is Go-kart. This is an absolute hoot, with sporty graphics and sound effects making you feel like you’re in a real-life Mario Kart game. This is fun in an authentically Mini way, so it doesn’t feel too gimmicky. You’ll be pleased to know the noises aren’t amplified outside of the car and you can turn them off once the initial novelty wears thin. Additionally, you can pick your preferred combo of visualisations and sounds and save them to your own personal mode. The Countryman we were driving was the range-topping Sport model with the Level 3 pack, giving us all the toys to try out. The addition of a head-up display was very welcome, giving information just where we needed it in the driver’s line of sight. We liked the augmented reality sat-nav too, which overlays directions on top of the view from the front camera, making it easier to see which road you need to take.

The all-electric Countryman has two power options from the same battery pack. You can go for the Countryman E with front-wheel drive or the more powerful all-wheel drive Countryman SE ALL4. We’ve only driven the latter but suspect the E has enough go for most people’s needs and will be the preferred option for those hoping to maximise range. The SE ALL4 felt nippy and responsive, and although it isn’t quite as agile as the Mini Cooper electric, it is more balanced and controlled. We also enjoyed flicking the boost paddle behind the steering wheel to unleash 10 seconds of bonus oomph. The Countryman is packed with surprise and delight features like this and as a result is so much more fun than the other SUVs in its class. With a likely range of just over 200 miles for the SE ALL4 and slightly more for the E, it’s a family-size electric car you’ll buy with both your head and your heart.