An inside look at the new all-electric MINI Cooper’s tech

You can store regularly used apps and widgets in the ‘tool belt’. Equally, there’s no risk of getting lost in the menus – because you can always quickly return to the core touchscreen display with the home button.

There’s still room for a few toggles

Although the new all-electric MINI Cooper is focused on digital thinking, MINI hasn’t forgot the iconic appeal and tactile convenience of good old buttons and switches.

That’s where the MINI toggle bar comes in. Sitting below the large circular OLED touchscreen, this bar of switches gives you quick access to essential driving controls. There’s a cool key-shaped start/stop switch, alongside a flickable drive selector and the parking brake button. Another toggle lets you pick the MINI Experience Modes to match your mood. (More on that in a moment).

You also get a dedicated button for the MINI Parking Assistant, as well as easy-access one-touch buttons for easy front and rear window demisting, helping you make a quick getaway on frosty early mornings.

“Hey MINI”: your own in-car personal assistant

It’s easy to access all the all-electric MINI Cooper’s key features on the touchscreen. But wouldn’t it be even better if you didn’t need to use your hands at all? Well, that’s where MINI Intelligent Personal Assistant – MINI’s first fully-fledged fully-featured voice control – comes in.

Simply say “Hey MINI” or use the steering-wheel-mounted push-to-talk button and you can visually see your voice commands appearing on the touchscreen display, so you can be sure it understands what you’re saying. You also get the option of having a friendly animated dog ‘Spike’ to guide you through your choices.

Using MINI’s enhanced voice recognition, you can control navigation, music and podcasts, hands-free phone calls and other key vehicle functions. The system also learns your behaviours, regular routes and uses geo-based data to make things even easier – such as automatically opening the window when entering a car park. You can even ask it to tell you a joke…

Find your way smarter and faster

The new all-electric MINI Cooper’s in-car MINI Navigation uses always-online high-speed 5G connectivity to pull in live traffic, live charging and live parking data from the cloud. That means you always get the most precise and efficient navigation.

As the all-electric MINI Cooper’s navigation is electric-focused – naturally – it intelligently helps you find the most efficient charging-optimised route to match your destination and your expected range. So, you can graze between fewer, faster top-ups enroute, or find slower cost-effective destination charging at your next major halt to do a longer refill for the next leg of your journey.

And here’s something really clever. The all-electric MINI Cooper’s navigation can be boosted with an optional augmented reality mode that feels even more intuitive. It overlays bold graphics over a forward-facing video image of the road ahead, making it even easier to ensure you’re on the right track.

MINI App: interact with your MINI remotely

The all-electric MINI Cooper’s high-speed always-online 5G connectivity also lets you interact with your car remotely from your smartphone, using the MINI app.

You can monitor and control your charging remotely or plan your route in advance from wherever you are, before syncing it with the in-car MINI Navigation. If you’ve forgotten where you’ve parked your car in an unfamiliar city, you can quickly find its location. You can even unlock and lock the vehicle remotely, if you need to give someone access, or if you’ve walked away from your vehicle without locking it.

The MINI App lets you use your smartphone as a MINI Digital Key, letting you walk up to, open your all-electric MINI Cooper and sync your vehicle with your personalised settings hands-free. The MINI App also pairs with your MINI Charging Card, giving you one-account access and billing for a wealth of the UK’s most popular charging networks. So, every interaction with your all-electric MINI Cooper is all in one place.

Customise your interior with MINI Experience Modes

Going digital in the new all-electric MINI Cooper means even more ways to personalise your drive. Using the MINI Experience Modes you can change the graphics on the large circular touchscreen and alter the ambient lighting that glows through the warm soft-touch knitted dashboard materials to suit your mood.

Core and Balanced Modes offer great default options. Pick Timeless Mode and you get a digital speedometer that evokes the iconic design of the original 1959 Mini’s speedometer, while Vivid Mode is inspired by MINI’s long links with the British music scene – using bold vibrant colours to evoke psychedelic album art.

Green Mode changes the driving character of the all-electric MINI Cooper – delivering power more smoothly and using more regenerative braking to recapture and redirect energy back to the battery during deceleration to enhance your range. A bar on the digital display glows green when you’re driving efficiently to help you hone your driving style. It even lets you know how many ‘bonus miles’ you’ve picked up.

At the other extreme, you’ve got Go-Kart Mode: which combines a crisp white-on-black race-inspired speedometer with configurable steering and traction control intervention to amp up the all-electric MINI Cooper’s sporty performance feel.

Finally, Personal Mode lets you custom-select your ambient lighting to suit your mode and upload images from the MINI app to display on the touchscreen.

Smarter parking with style

The new all-electric MINI Cooper boasts a wealth of smart MINI Driving Assistant tech lend an extra set of eyes and an extra helping hand on the road. They include Dynamic Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning, Speed Limit Info and Speed Limit Assist, as well as Lane Keep Assist and Lane Departure Warning, all making journeys easier and ultimately safer for you and your passengers.

Key for the urban-friendly all-electric MINI Cooper is the optional new Parking Assistant Plus. It uses 12 ultrasonic sensors and four surround-view cameras to spot and suggest possible parking spaces, before automatically steering into them while you control the throttle and brake. The Explore Mode even lets you get out of the car and use the MINI App on your smartphone to park remotely.

Equally, more cameras means a better views of your surroundings, letting you pick panoramic, overhead or even 3D options to see hazards around you more clearly. If you pick the Remote 360 option, you can use the cameras to view the surroundings of your vehicle and the interior. You can even share moments with a Snapshot photograph that you can upload to your smartphone using the in-car wi-fi.