- 1 hour ago
MINI Aceman SE looks like the answer to a question many MINI fans never asked: is this small electric crossover the clever new model that should replace the Clubman? In this test drive and review, the Aceman is put through real-world use, from winter range testing and motorway driving to city errands and twisty roads.
The walkaround covers the Aceman’s compact proportions, Countryman-style face, tiny rear windows, boot space, rear-seat packaging, tailgate design, and the surprisingly strong handling that still feels very MINI. It also digs into the ride quality, brake feel, charging speed, regenerative braking, and the winter range drop that makes this EV far less convincing than the press release suggests.
If you are researching MINI Aceman review, MINI Aceman SE range test, electric crossover test drive, or a small EV buying decision, this is a candid look at what works and what does not. It also fits searches for electric car review, winter EV range, and real-world MINI Aceman impressions.
The walkaround covers the Aceman’s compact proportions, Countryman-style face, tiny rear windows, boot space, rear-seat packaging, tailgate design, and the surprisingly strong handling that still feels very MINI. It also digs into the ride quality, brake feel, charging speed, regenerative braking, and the winter range drop that makes this EV far less convincing than the press release suggests.
If you are researching MINI Aceman review, MINI Aceman SE range test, electric crossover test drive, or a small EV buying decision, this is a candid look at what works and what does not. It also fits searches for electric car review, winter EV range, and real-world MINI Aceman impressions.
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MotorTranscript
00:00There used to be a time when MINI offered eight models or body variants.
00:03Today the British mark has consolidated its portfolio and all the three Clubman buyers
00:07have now to choose between the Countryman, the five-door Cooper or the Aceman Electric.
00:12As the second generation Countryman owner, I think the new Countryman is too big for me.
00:17Perhaps downsizing to the Aceman would be the right step then.
00:21Let's find out.
00:35I recorded a comparison of the MINI Aceman and the Kia EV3.
00:40A surprising pair?
00:41Not necessarily.
00:43Also, channel members can watch this comparison early and without ads.
00:46Please consider becoming a channel member.
01:16Without the Clubman, MINI today offers the Cooper, formerly known as the Hatch, in three and five-door versions.
01:23The Aceman is slightly larger than the five-door Cooper and much smaller than the Clubman.
01:27The Aceman has dimensions similar to the Jeep Avenger or the Dacia Sandero and it comes exclusively with an electric
01:33powertrain.
01:34More about it in a moment.
01:36The front of the Aceman looks like a miniature Countryman with angular headlights and a tall vertical faux radiator grill
01:43because the electric motor doesn't need as much cooling as an internal combustion engine.
01:48There could have been a frunk under the bonnet or at least a tray for a charging cable, but BMW
01:52does not believe its customers want it.
01:55It seems the aftermarket doesn't agree because you can already find frunks for some models of various brands, including BMW.
02:02There is plenty of room under the Aceman's bonnet, so someone will probably get around to it sooner or later.
02:10MINI has to maintain its classic proportions, so from the side you can see attempts to conceal the battery in
02:15the floor.
02:15Hence the black cladding on the sills and the fenders.
02:19This is to make the side windows look not as small as they really are and they are tiny, which
02:25you notice especially from the inside.
02:28Oh, those rims!
02:30I fell in love with them.
02:32I need to see if I could fit them to my Countryman, put some off-road tires on them and
02:38it would look mega.
02:42Hey, don't judge me!
02:44At the rear there is again a lot of plastic cladding at the bottom so that the rear window doesn't
02:49look like a gun hole,
02:51tail lamps with a variable motif and Aceman lettering running across the tailgate.
02:56Underneath that black plastic is a tow hitch socket.
02:59The Aceman can tow up to 750 kilograms and carry up to 75 kilograms on the hitch.
03:05In the press release there is mention of clever use of space and a whole range of fresh possibilities in
03:12terms of design that the all-electric drive opens up.
03:16I guess Frank isn't clever enough.
03:19What also doesn't seem very clever is designing a tailgate in such a way that the release button is in
03:24a place that will be wet and dirty for six months of the year in most of Europe.
03:29To the best of my knowledge, none of the trim versions have or can be additionally equipped with a power
03:35tailgate.
03:36So you drop your kids off to school, open the boot and you have your fingers dirty immediately.
03:43But there is more because wet road dirt is dripping on you and inside the boot from the poorly designed
03:49tailgate.
03:50I can only guess this is a result of designing a car mainly in a studio when no one asks
03:54themselves how the car will behave in the real world.
03:58And I don't want to hear mini PR explanation that their customers don't care because this car is a fashion
04:06statement.
04:07You know what else is fashion?
04:09Your wife's blouse.
04:11The one with muck on its sleeve.
04:16The boot capacity is a modest 300 liters.
04:19Fortunately, there is a double floor.
04:21Even in its lower position, you can still fit a charging cable underneath it.
04:25And in the upper position, you can also stow away the parcel shelf.
04:30There is a 12 volt outlet and that would be it.
04:33There aren't even any shopping bag hooks.
04:35If I want clever use of space, I can buy a folding basket.
04:40BMW or Mercedes or both used to add one as part of some cargo arrangement package.
04:45Perhaps mini should also consider it.
04:48The space in the back is, as you can imagine, limited.
04:52Two adults will manage and, well, that's it.
04:55I'm 175 centimeters tall.
04:57The driver's seat is set to my driving position and it looks like this.
05:02Behind the passenger seat, which can be moved back even further, I don't know why, it is only worse.
05:09The backrest splits 60-40.
05:12There is no armrest and no ski hatch.
05:14The only cup holder and two USB-C ports are between the front seats.
05:19There are no air conditioning vents, but there is a tunnel running through the middle.
05:24Yes, a whole range of fresh possibilities in terms of vehicle design opened up thanks to the all-electric drive.
05:32So, just in case they left a transmission tunnel, maybe they weren't sure if this going-all EV is going
05:39to be a real thing.
05:40So, they just left a back door for a ice-powered Ace-Man All-4.
05:46At least they managed to design some door pockets, which are so small nothing will actually fit in there.
05:51But, jokes aside, there is a third Ice-Fix anchor point on the front passenger seat and I applaud that.
06:00The Ace-Man cockpit looks very similar to that of the Mini Cooper SE and the Countryman.
06:04I link to the reviews of both of these cars in the description below.
06:08I also have a separate video, which is devoted solely to Mini OS 9 infotainment system.
06:14In this particular example, it seems the screen is a bit less responsive,
06:19but perhaps it's because of my hands, fingers, which are frozen cold.
06:25And, if you're wondering about this seatbelt buckle down here, it's because of progress.
06:30In some models, regardless of the brand and powertrain,
06:33as soon as you unbuckle and exit the vehicle, the whole car shuts down.
06:37Now, I realize that on set, I walk around the vehicle, I get in, I get out,
06:41and this may not be the way most people use their cars.
06:46However, when I get out to close the gate, I don't need the car to shut down.
06:52I'm not leaving for half an hour, but for 30 seconds.
06:55And, I want to get back behind the wheel and drive away,
06:58not watch and listen to the whole welcome sequence all over again.
07:01And, I know, the welcome sequence can probably be turned off,
07:04but, this is why the buckle rides with me in some test cars.
07:10Now, as I mentioned earlier, the front side windows are very small,
07:15so it's worth ordering a panoramic roof to make the cockpit feel brighter and less claustrophobic.
07:21Also, the door handles are too low, in my opinion.
07:25They should be where the handles to pull the doors shut are located,
07:28since BMW wants to protect cyclists from drivers opening doors without checking their mirrors,
07:33they should have put a button on the top grab handle
07:37and move the analog pull lever somewhere lower.
07:55If I had to point to one area where the Mini Aseman shines,
07:59it's the handling.
08:00Like the Cooper SE, also the Aseman SE corners, like it's glued to the road.
08:06And, that's true even in the winter, as I'm recording this review.
08:10The Aseman is front-wheel drive only, even in the most powerful John Cooper Works version,
08:15which this is not.
08:16The review test unit is a JCW trim package.
08:22Anyway, the electric motor and the traction control software work wonders.
08:26If I could take a shorter daily commute on the highway or twice as long on a twisty mountain road,
08:34I'd choose the latter.
08:36Two problems with the above statement, though.
08:38First is the range and the second is the ride.
08:41And I'll start with the ride.
08:43Somehow the designers managed to overlook this combination of stiff suspension, wheelbase length and weight
08:49that makes the Aseman violently rock back and forth on some roads.
08:55And, that includes some relatively new express ways on which I have driven various cars,
09:00including my own Mini Countryman,
09:01and I've never felt like at a heavy metal concert.
09:05Breaking the law! Breaking the law!
09:11Next up is the range.
09:12Mini offers the Aseman E with 38.5 kWh net traction battery and 184 horsepower,
09:19and the Aseman SE with a 49.2 kWh net traction battery and 218 horsepower.
09:27This is the one with larger battery and more power.
09:30The range of the E version is about 300 kilometers, the SE about 400 kilometers.
09:35In the summer, I tested the Cooper SE, which also had a claimed range of around 400 kilometers,
09:41and realistically, it was able to achieve that in suburban conditions.
09:46In the city, the range dropped to about 300 kilometers and on the expressway to about 250 kilometers,
09:52assuming that you start with a full battery and drive it down to zero,
09:56not within the 10-80% state of charge, of course.
10:00In that review, I said that I would be testing the Aseman in autumn or winter,
10:05so I'll be interested to see how it performs in less than perfect conditions.
10:09Well, the Aseman barely managed 200 kilometers in the winter.
10:14The test route was roughly 60-ish kilometers each.
10:18In the city, on country roads and on the dual carriageway,
10:22the temperature ranged from minus 2 to plus 2 degrees Celsius,
10:25so it's hardly a harsh winter.
10:31I parked outside overnight, so in the morning, when I set off to film the beauty shots,
10:36a lot of energy went into warming up, but many people live in the cities
10:39where they do not have access to heated garages or even charging points
10:44to charge overnight and heat up the car.
10:47Besides, when you run errands around town, you don't plug the car into every charger every time
10:52because there aren't that many charging points, at least not in Poland.
10:58After the beauty shots, the car informed me of a power cut due to low temperature of the traction battery,
11:04which it probably did not want to warm up due to low range.
11:08Shortly thereafter, messages began to appear about low battery level
11:12and there was a prompt about battery conditioning for fast charging,
11:15which I did not plan on doing because I still had some filming to do.
11:19I set off from home with a range of 110 km and returned with a range of 12 km.
11:26That morning, I drove for about 60 km, beauty shots in one location and drive-by,
11:32car-to-car as well as GoPro close-ups in a second location,
11:35so about 50 km disappeared due to cold weather.
11:39I performed the acceleration runs with limited power due to low battery level,
11:43so instead of claimed 7.1 seconds, 0 to 100 km per hour,
11:48I got about 9 seconds.
11:49In go-kart mode with DSC set to sport,
11:52there was a lot of wheel spin on wet surface,
11:54so the car performed better in normal mode.
12:00Something that caught my attention was the strange behavior of the brakes.
12:04When braking hard, the friction is almost perceptible,
12:08as if the discs and the pads were covered with small pebbles.
12:12I don't know if it's related to the brake recall system on the Cooper and the Aseman models,
12:17which was announced six months ago and apparently hasn't been resolved yet,
12:21but it doesn't feel like worn pads.
12:24It's something else.
12:29By default, MINI uses radar-based recuperation.
12:32When you lift off the accelerator pedal,
12:35the car either coasts or starts slowing down depending on the situation in front of you.
12:39There are also some region settings,
12:41but they are buried in the infotainment system menu.
12:44MINI believes its customers are too busy with themselves
12:47to be interested in the car's current parameters.
12:50Aside from that, there is a B mode that forces constant,
12:54reasonably strong recuperation,
12:56but something I'd not classify as full-on one-pedal driving.
13:00Still, it could be useful during long hill descents.
13:04What else can I say about the Aseman?
13:06Visibility is good, the seats have good lateral support,
13:09there is a wide range of adjustment of the driving position.
13:12Similar to other MINI models,
13:14also this car has a good 360 camera,
13:16navigation with augmented reality,
13:18and a clever parking assistant.
13:21And yes, these are potentially useful features,
13:24but I'd like a well-designed tailgate.
13:27And if I can't have a longer range,
13:29I'd like at least charging faster than 95 kilowatts.
13:33During road trips, especially in wintertime,
13:35I don't want to stop for half an hour every 150 kilometers.
13:50Prices of the MINI Aseman start at 30,650 euro for the E
13:54and 34,150 euro for the SE.
13:59This test car is an Aseman SE in John Cooper Works trim.
14:03With options, it costs 46,446 euro.
14:09To me, the MINI Aseman is largely an electric version of the five-door Cooper.
14:15All this clever use of space and a whole range of fresh possibilities in terms of vehicle design
14:21is a load of crap filling a suspiciously short model launch press release.
14:26My impression is that the MINI is betting everything on the Cooper and the Countryman.
14:30If that doesn't work for you, I'm sure there's a BMW showroom next door,
14:34and I feel sorry for MINI.
14:37And what do you think about the MINI Aseman?
14:39Is this what you thought was missing from the MINI range,
14:42or do you agree that Cooper and Countryman are all that MINI customers really want?
14:46Drop me a comment below this video.
14:51If you like my sarcastic, down-to-earth, and possibly mildly amusing car reviews,
14:56join me every Friday at 3 p.m. Central European time,
14:59and don't forget to subscribe and like this video,
15:02as it helps me move the YouTube algorithm.
15:05Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
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