Hybrid Mini - advanced driving pleasure
I had the MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 - for that is the full name of this interesting and advanced car - at my disposal for a few days, during which I drove it in town, on the open road and in the mountains. It gave me a great deal of pleasure.
My heart beats faster whenever I see an "electric" on the street. Will a "plug-in" hybrid also make me feel almost as if I were in an EV, or will I conclude that the electric drive is just a decorative add-on to a conventionally powered car?
My first impression is that the MINI handles superbly: it is very agile and responds quickly to the small, chunky steering wheel. The interior, with a large round display in the centre, is stylish and very well finished. Spending time with the car, both in town and on the open road at motorway speeds, is a real driving pleasure.
The 7.6 kWh battery and six driving modes
But let us get back to the electric side of things. The car has a 7.6kWh lithium-ion battery (by comparison, the new Nissan LEAF has 40kWh). The module pack weighs about 150 kg and takes up space that was partly meant for the boot (a loss of 45 litres) and the fuel tank (a loss of 15 litres). The car offers a matrix of no fewer than 6 driving modes, and at first this wealth of options gave me a bit of a headache. Even so, after just a few goes you intuitively know what lies behind each choice. With a large rotating ring around the gear knob of the automatic-manual gearbox you can choose "green", "mid" or "sport" mode. The display in the main instrument cluster confirms your choice. A switch at the bottom of the centre console lets you decide how the combustion engine and electric drive work together. Here you can choose between "max e-drive", "save" and "auto e-drive".
Charging and range in MAX eDRIVE mode
What interested me most was MAX eDRIVE mode, which offers purely electric driving. With an ABB charger nearby, I went there to fully charge the car's battery. After a short wait - a company e-Golf was being charged - I plugged the little MINI in. Exactly 2 hours and 29 minutes later the charger switched off, showing on the screen that 7.25kWh had been delivered.
With a fully charged battery I set off into town. The car was cold, it was minus 8 degrees outside, and I had the cabin heating and electric driving mode switched on. Well, after 12 km the electricity ran out and the car switched to AUTO eDRIVE mode. The range, shorter than the manufacturer's figure (42 km), was partly due to the low outside temperature and partly due to an obvious mistake on my part. I did not take advantage of the option to preheat the cabin while charging (a useful feature), which meant the cabin had to be heated intensively using energy from the battery.
ALL4 drive, eBoost and fuel consumption
Interestingly, even after the electric-only mode has switched off, the car still has enough clean energy to draw on when pulling away and on kick-down, when the so-called eBoost is activated. In the first case, the car covers the first few metres on electricity and then starts the combustion engine. In the second, when you floor the accelerator, the combustion engine driving the front wheels is assisted by the electric motor, which, by contrast, drives the rear wheels. So the 134 hp of the first engine is boosted by the 88 hp of the second, and the car becomes... four-wheel drive. MINI proudly advertises this unusual drivetrain on the side of the body as ALL4. It is worth stressing that the switch from electric to combustion power and back again is remarkably smooth, almost imperceptible, helped by the excellent soundproofing of the combustion engine.
Given the many drive options, it is hard to pin down real-world fuel consumption in everyday use. It can range from... 0 litres (driving on electricity) to about 10 litres/100 km in "save" mode, which not only powers the car but also recharges the battery.
With the number of charging stations growing, we will be able to enjoy zero-emission driving more easily and more often. When I charged the car a second time, I used a Greenway charger; by the end of 2019 there will be 140 of them across Poland. I plugged into the one that was the forerunner of the whole nationwide network, at the Galeria Mokotów shopping centre in Warsaw. A free contactless charging card let me draw power while I went off to do a little shopping.
Test summary
The MINI Countryman Cooper S Plug-in ALL4 is a remarkably interesting car. It delivers a huge dose of driving pleasure, lets you be eco-friendly and, using the combustion engine, allows you to plan long journeys without compromise, offering excellent performance. This drivetrain suits the MINI brand well, associated as it is with modern trends built on a retro British marque. If subsidies for cars like this were introduced, the pleasure of driving would be even greater.
Would you like to read about Arkady Fiedler's expedition? Go ahead! Link: Across Africa in a LEAF
I have also described another of my electric adventures. Click the link: a tour of Scotland in an electric BMW i3
