The J01 Electric MINI Cooper Is Bigger Than We Expected

DimON · March 17, 2023

We all expected the all new J01 electric MINI Cooper to actually be smaller than the current F56 MINI Cooper. Sources told us for years that MINI had minimized so much in its transformation to a bespoke electric platform that we’d see something closer in size to the R56 or even the R50/53. For good or bad, we can now confirm that’s not the case. Instead we’ll get something that’s actually bigger.

The all new J01 2024 electric MINI Cooper is a watershed moment of the brand. It will be MINI’s first electric vehicle on a dedicated electric platform and will represent the first total rethink since the 2001 R50. Unlike the current MINI Cooper SE which was built on an existing ICE chassis, this new electric MINI will be designed from the ground up to be an electric car which will allow for improved performance, range and more MINI-like proportions.

Despite this clean-sheet design MINI kept the overall size extremely close to the current F56 MINI Cooper – and in fact went about 1.5″ longer overall. It’s also almost an inch taller – likely due to the batteries sitting across the entire floor. However the key thing for the classic MINI Cooper are the dimensions. And in that, MINI has made some great progress in reducing the front overhang by increasing the wheelbase.

	R56 MINI Cooper	F56 ICE & Electric MINI Cooper	J01 2025 Electric MINI Cooper
Length	3821 mm / 150.43 in	3821 mm / 150.43 in	3860 mm / 151.91 in
Height	1414 mm / 55.67 in	1414 mm / 55.67 in	1435 mm / 56.49 in
Wheelbase	2495 mm / 98.23 in	2495 mm / 98.23 in	2525 mm / 99.40

The all new electric MINI Cooper will come in two flavors; the Cooper E and the Cooper SE. The E will have a 40kWh battery driving the front wheels and should see a range of around 200 miles on the WTLP testing cycle. The Cooper SE (also FWD) will have a larger 54kWh battery and should see a 250 mile range with WTLP testing (around 200 miles in EPA testing). That would Our sources have told us that these figures are relatively conservative (as is BMW’s typical position). An important note for those comparing this to the current electric MINI hatch – that car has a 110 mile range and a 28.9kWh battery.

Performance is also up with the Cooper E offering 181bhp – similar to the traditional Cooper S performance. The hotter Cooper SE will have 215bhp and should have JCW levels of performance.

J01 Electric MINI Cooper Production Timing

Given the government red-tape we’re hearing about in China, we expect production of the J01 MINI Cooper to push back to May 2024 rather than November 2023. Either way it will debut at the Munich Motorshow this September. Luckily for the North American market MINI is pushing forward with plans to bring then J01 to Oxford for UK production around 2027.