First Drive: Electric JCW MINI Cooper and Aceman

Jek Ray

26/04/2025

MINI invited us, along with several other members of our local automotive press, to sample their all-new electric JCW cars in Thailand several weeks back.

We had the opportunity to be one of the very first people outside of the BMW Group to have had a proper go in said cars, with brand reps keen to show us that an electric JCW can still serve up similar levels of fun as their petrol-powered brethren.

This trip wasn’t solely about the electric JCWs (though it was the reason why we were flown to Bangkok in the first place) – we had an opportunity to do a drive from Bangkok to Khao Yai in a trio of electric MINI cars (two Aceman Ses, and one Cooper SE). You can read more about how that went here!

The Stars of the Show

The location of our little driving experience is Parathumi Speedway. Here, we’d be putting a fleet of the electric JCW cars through their paces. A pair of petrol-powered F66 generation JCWs were also present, though as this trip was centered around the electric models, we never got a chance to sample them.

With the usual safety briefings out of the way, we could now be let loose on the track. Well, let loose within reason anyways. There’d be two different groups on track at the same time, with four Coopers and one Aceman running in our batch.

We chose to sample the Cooper JCW first. And straightaway, there’s a sense that what it loses in noise, it makes up for in sheer power. If you must know, these electric JCW Coopers have 255 bhp, or about 40 bhp more than their SE counterparts.

The cars are also incredibly stiffly sprung, with what felt like very little suspension travel (and thus, body roll). This helps to conceal its almost 1.8-ton kerb weight, which, for context, is some half a ton heavier than the outgoing petrol model.

As a result, you get a car that is every bit as eager in the corner as any MINI before it, but one that has the instantaneous drive out of every single corner. Of course, a power bump over the SE means you get less range – 371 in this case, but it also means a faster century sprint time, of just 5.9 seconds.

As you’d expect from a hotted up MINI, it trades some of its retro cuteness for bodywork with greater aggression. Changes over the standard car include an all-new front and rear fascia, with JCW-specific graphics on the bootlid, and a whole load of red in our test cars’ specification.

Ace, Man

At the end of our seven hot laps, we were to park up and swap. We ended up being the lead car for this session, second only to the Countryman pace car. And the Aceman JCW felt like a completely different animal.

It actually has the same levels of power as the Cooper, but has more mass as a result of its larger stature. This means a longer 0 – 100km/h time of 6.4 seconds, though that is hardly slow regardless of how you put it.

There’s noticeably more bodyroll than in the Cooper, but this makes for a far more comfortable ride. And despite this, the Aceman JCW actually feels more controllable, and a lot easier for you to find, and stay at, the limit.

It definitely isn’t quicker than the Cooper, but we’d say it felt more engaging to drive quickly, and more approachable and livable when you aren’t pushing it.

Fun, Sans The Noise

The JCW experience is equal parts the visual drama, and noise. You’d expect to be missing a little something when you remove the pops and bangs from having a combustion engine. And whilst that is true, an electric MINI appears to have made up for that.

They may not have the burble of the JCWs of old, but these cars feel much quicker, and are still every bit as sharp as their outgoing cousins. MINI, as is true of the BMW group as a whole, is proving to the world that electric cars need not be bloated machines only capable of winning traffic light grand prixes.

With rationally sized battery packs and ultra-efficient machines, you can have a truly capable EV on track, but one that has usable range in the real-world too – making these MINIs the best of both worlds!