MINI confirmed a while back that their new all-electric model will be based on the 3-door hatch we love today. They also confirmed its full name will be MINI Cooper SE and that the powertrain will be shared with the BMW i3 S, along with other things. Basically, the only thing MINI didn’t tell us yet are the performance specs and how it drives. For that, they got their Dakar Rally pilot, Kuba Przygonski to do a couple of test runs with the car and share some insight.
Kuba is well known in the rally world. He has been racing with MINI’s X-Raid teams for quite some time now, including at this year’s Dakar rally. He actually came in fourth overall in the car rankings, which is not a bad result at all. He was invited to drive the electric MINI Cooper SE and, instead of talking about it, he just gestured in front of the camera which actually turned out to be quite a good idea.
One of the things that defines a car and how it feels is the way it makes us behave or interact with it. If you press on the acceleration pedal and you instantly get a big smile on your face then you know that’s a fun car to throw around. It’s exactly what’s happening here with Kuba flashing a big smile the moment he sets off. The rest of the experience seems pretty good too, throwing the car into some tight bends and just having fun.
In the end though, there was a drawback he pointed out: everything was too silent for his taste. And we can definitely understand that as his usual MINI rally car is a diesel monster that could probably wake up the dead with its engine. Nevertheless, his smile made us even more curious as to how the new MINI drives.
