MINIs have always been lifestyle cars. Undoubtedly and effortlessly stylish, these modern design icons look great, drive well but more practicality and space are available from other manufacturers at a very similar price point.

However, MINI appears to have addressed this issue during its revitalisation of its model line-up. The British marque still retains the proportions and the characteristics of its most iconic models – the Cooper survives these changes bearing proportions and dimensions very similar to that of its forebearers.

Other models have either been dropped entirely (Clubman), or rejigged and reconfigured to better suit the needs of a wider audience. This opens the MINI marque to a greater pool of car buyers, who have had to traditionally settle for less stylish alternatives from a rival brand.

But has introducing widespread appeal led to a dilution of the characteristics that makes a MINI iconic? Or is the Countryman SE still a genuine MINI at heart?

All Grown Up

Let’s start with the design of the car. You can definitely tell that it is a MINI, and it employs the same Charismatic Simplicity concept that has been applied to the other new MINIs. Squint a little and you’d see shades of the outgoing F60 Countryman, sans the chrome, bulges and other non-essential design elements that the MINI cars have accumulated over the years.

Not my words, but the words of Oliver Heilmer, the Head of MINI Design. This obsession with simplicity is most obvious when viewed from the rear. Here, the new Countryman has far less recesses and accoutrements than any previous Countryman model, with their designers choosing to embrace minimalism instead.

This decision was also driven by a desire to make the cars less polluting to build, as chrome decorative elements are actually fairly toxic to the environment to manufacturer. But don’t assume that MINI has simply stripped out all of its character willy-nilly. Far from it actually.

All the focus has simply been redirected to enhancing the experience elsewhere in the vehicle. For instance, owners now gain the ability to toggle between three individual light modes for the front and rear LED lights. And the new car actually gains a distinctive C-pillar element, which was absent in its predecessors.

Obsession with Essentials

The same approach has also been adopted in the cabin. MINI has now standardised the general design across all of its model offerings to a greater degree, so the variance between the Coopers and Countryman models has narrowed with the new cars.

All MINI models now have a large 9.4 inch fully circular OLED display. And yes, pixels fill up every square inch of the panel, so this isn’t just a rectangular unit with a round bezel. The graphics are crisp, modern and sharp, with a wide array of customisation settings to suit your every need/taste.

The shifter, start switch and drive mode toggles are now housed in a central unit, and is still every bit as tactile as the switchgear in older MINIs. A head’s up display still features in this new car, and is a much-welcomed feature, considering the central speedo can take some getting used to.

Cabin quality is excellent, with MINI adopting a colour contrast fabric weave to trim most of the interior panels. There’s plenty of bronze trimmings scattered throughout the interior, and it really exudes a air of elegance and style. The cabin feels surprisingly airy too, with sufficient leg, knee and headroom in all of its seats.

Calm, and Less Frenzied

The growing up process has robbed the new Countryman of the agility of its Cooper brethren. Still, what it loses in agility, it gains with a far more composed ride, and a steering rack that is much easier to live with than in previous MINIs.

It also helps that the steering wheel, now made of ecological conscious materials, feels great in the hands, and the BMW-sourced buttons are easy-to-use on the go. Powering the Countryman SE are a pair of electric motors with a combined output of 304 bhp.

The drivetrain is very much front-biased, with the unit driving the front wheels having a higher output than the one in the rear. Still, it may not corner as hard or as flat as it predecessors, but it is still incredibly rapid, especially off-the-line.

MINI says the car will do 0-100km/h in just 5.6 seconds, and it will go on to do a top speed of 180 km/h. And from the driver’s seat, there’s little that’d make you question these claims. All of the electrons are drawn from a 66.5 kWh battery pack, which will return a range of 433 kilometres. I achieved a real-world range of about 400 kilometres, or about 92% of its claimed range.

MINI’s Grown Up

The Countryman is undoubtedly the grown-up car in the MINI line-up. It sacrifices a bit of outright performance, but gains a very healthy does of civility and practicality. And it is far better than their first attempt at building a mass-produced electric car too.

This is because the Countryman is built on the same BMW UKL2 platform, which was designed with powertrain flexibility in mind. As such, this isn’t just another EV built on a converted ICE platform, but one that has provisions for high voltage battery packs and EV-packaging from the get go.

It is still every bit as stylish as any other MINI out there, but is now genuinely practical enough to do daily duties. If you are a family man seeking to buy your first MINI, then there’s really very little to stop* you considering the all-new MINI Countryman SE!

*Aside probably from its pricetag. Nothing MINI can do though – COE prices are still insane!

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