Mini Cooper Electric review

The Mini Cooper Electric range is slightly difficult to get your head round – first you choose your powertrain. The E has the lesser powered 182bhp motor and smaller 36.6kWh battery and starts at £26,905. The SE comes with 215bhp, a larger 49.2kWh battery and starts at £29,905.

Each of those can be had in Classic, Exclusive or Sport trim. You get 16in wheels on the Classic, 17s on Essential and 18in alloys on the Sport, as well as a variety of body kits and interior styling treatments. The uplifts in these trims are the same whether you're in an E or SE – Exclusive is £2,200 more than Classic, and Sport is an extra £1,300 over Exclusive.

The JCW hot hatch model sits by itself at the top of the range at £34,905. It's on 18in alloys and gets a bespoke body kit and racier interior. Naturally.

What about the kit?

There are two upgrade packages available on the Cooper Electric – if you buy an E, Level 1 is £2k and Level 2 is another £4k. But if you go for the SE, Level 1 is included and Level 2 drops to £2k. Confuzzled yet?

There’s a mystical Level 3 package that’s only available on SE Exclusive cars and above, and that costs £4.5k. It’s ridiculous to try and get your head round, but that’s numberwang.

Level 1 brings heated front seats, keyless entry, LED headlights, head-up display and wireless phone charging. Level 2 brings a panoramic sunroof, fancier windows that filter out some of the sun and a Harmon Kardon sound system. Level 3 has self-parking tech and augmented reality satnav tech that shows you a video of where you’re driving but with arrows and that.

Which one should I go for?

The bigger battery seems like a no brainer, and for the sake of the ride we’d probably for the basic Mini Cooper SE Classic model. The John Cooper Works is a fun attempt at an electric hot hatch, but when an Alpine A290 is less money and a Renault 5 less again? Hmm.