An In-Depth Look At the U25 2025 MINI Countryman Electric (New Photos)

MINI is gearing up to replace its best selling model next year making it larger, more comfortable, more modern and electric. The 2025 MINI Countryman is a global model but one designed with an eye towards the North American consumer – more than any MINI ever. While MINI is releasing both an ICE and electric models, today’s we’re going to focus on the first ever MINI Countryman Electric. What does electrification (much less the other changes) mean in terms of design, performance and utility? We spoke with our sources to give you the clearest picture yet.
As you can see in the photos throughout this article, MINI is in the very final stages of testing the Countryman making its last second tweaks to electronic settings and refinement. Some of this final testing was done in the Scottish Highlands and more specifically Lochearnhead Scotland.
Stylistically the U25 MINI Countryman is a sharper, more bold design that has clearly grown in every dimension. But we knew about the size. What we see here for the first time is the muscular fenders and minimal front and rear styling. More upright with a few technical looking details, MINI has clearly tried to make the Countryman look for off-road worthy.
The front is more square and the new headlights are more dramatic in their angles. While these aren’t the optional dynamic headlights, the LED daytime running lights do a great job of showing off the new shape.
Overall, like the J01 Cooper, the U25 Countryman overall design is minimal and almost elegant while its details are purely functionally driven
The Countryman will once again be positioned as the largest product in the MINI range. It will also be the only platform offered by MINI with both ICE and electric power. Designed with plenty of input from the American market, it will deliver more space and utility to ever before. But can it still retain the hallmarks of the MINI brand? While we don’t yet have an answer, we have some details that give us a clue.
Sources tell us that MINI will offer a package on Countryman with more aggressive off-road capable tires and a slightly raised suspension. While it won’t offer true off-road capability like a Land Rover or Bronco, it will have better grip and ground clearance for trails and even the ability ford small streams. For most that just means it’ll look more aggressive and capable when running to get morning coffee.
It’s bigger but not huge. While we can’t tell you yet about our experience seeing it in person at a preview in Munich, we can talk about the dimensions that MINI has previously given us.
According to MINI we’ll see some modest but noticeable increases in length on this new Countryman. Growing mostly behind the rear wheel wheels, we’ll see an additional five inches of length in total. The added length is designed to increase the rear cargo space putting it on par with other crossovers in the category. Note the wheelbase will not be changing over the F60 which could mean an even larger front over-hang.
R60 Countryman (’10-’16) | F60 Countryman (’17-’23) | U25 Countryman (’24-’32) | |
Length | 4097 mm / 161.3 in | 4298 mm / 169.2 in | 4429 mm / 174.37 in |
Height | 1562 mm / 61.5 in | 1557 mm / 61.3 in | 1613 mm / 63.5 in |
Wheelbase | 2596 mm / 102.2 in | 2670 mm / 105.1 in | 2670 mm / 105.11 in |
Added size means added weight right? Maybe not as much as you might think in the case of the ICE variant. However the electric version will undoubtedly be the heaviest MINI ever. To keep this weight down our sources are telling us that MINI will make use of advanced chassis design and plenty of new aluminum components to reduce the weight gain you might expect with the growth in detentions. We can get an idea of weight by looking at the new BMW X1 which has a 3,750 lbs curb weight. That’s only up 24 lbs over the previous generation despite being marginally larger and being offered with more standard equipment. Given this we’d expect the ICE generation Countryman All4 won’t be far off the current car’s 3,726 lbs curb weight (assuming equipment levels are similar). However due to the heavy battery pack, we’d expect the 2025 MINI Countryman Electric to be at least 500-600 lbs heavier. Assuming the BMW iX1 is a clue, we could see a final weight around 4,400 lbs.
MINI will launch two electric configurations simply named the E and SE. The E will have a single motor driving the front wheels while the SE will offer a two motor set-up driving all four wheels. But what
Countryman E | Countryman SE* | |
WLTP Range – Europe | 273 miles | 261 miles |
EPA Range – United States (estimated) | 213 miles | 204 miles |
One important note about range that is almost always missed by commenters on social media. The WLTP testing protocol produces, on average 22% higher mileage figures than EPA testing by. However in our experience, real world performance often lies somewhere in the middle, a bit closer to the EPA numbers.
Another important point not factored into these numbers is BMW’s historically conservative published performance numbers. Given that the EPA figures are self reported by automakers, there is some flexibility in how they test and produce numbers. Third party tests have shown brands like BMW and Porsche are often under-reporting real-world range in order to accommodate for various conditions.
Charging speed is as critical is not more so than range depending on your situation. And if we look at the identical electric BMW iX1 sold in Europe, we get an idea of what the Countryman electric should offer in terms of charging speed. The BMW iX1 supports DC fast-charging at up to 130 kW, which can charge from 10 percent to 80 percent in only 29 minutes. While we don’t have global data (much less US specific data), we do have European data on charging speeds which should give you an idea of what we’ll see with the 2025 MINI Countryman Electric.
Charging Point | Max. Power | Power | Time | Rate |
---|---|---|---|---|
Standard 11.0 kW On-Board Charger | ||||
Wall Plug (2.3 kW) | 230V / 1x10A | 2.3 kW | 33h15m | 11 km/h |
1-phase 16A (3.7 kW) | 230V / 1x16A | 3.7 kW | 20h45m | 18 km/h |
1-phase 32A (7.4 kW) | 230V / 1x32A | 7.4 kW | 10h30m | 35 km/h |
3-phase 16A (11 kW) | 400V / 3x16A | 11 kW | 7 hours | 53 km/h |
3-phase 32A (22 kW) | 400V / 3x16A | 11 kW † | 7 hours | 53 km/h |
Optional 22.0kW On-Board Charger * | ||||
Wall Plug (2.3 kW) | 230V / 1x10A | 2.3 kW | 33h15m | 11 km/h |
1-phase 16A (3.7 kW) | 230V / 1x16A | 3.7 kW | 20h45m | 18 km/h |
1-phase 32A (7.4 kW) | 230V / 1x32A | 7.4 kW | 10h30m | 35 km/h |
3-phase 16A (11 kW) | 400V / 3x16A | 11 kW | 7 hours | 53 km/h |
3-phase 32A (22 kW) | 400V / 3x32A | 22 kW † | 3h30m | 100 km/h |
Countryman E | Countryman SE* | |
Horsepower | 185 hp (140 KW) | 264 hp (200 kW) |
Battery Size | 64 kWh | 64 kWh |
Leveraging the same technical layout as the BMW iX1, the Countryman E single motor variant will produce 185 hp and be offered in FWD only. The WTLP rated range for the Countryman E will be 440 km or 273 miles.
The Countryman SE will see an output of 264 hp via dual motors and AWD. The 64.7-kWh t-shaped battery pack in the SE will have a range of 440 km or 261 miles.
Will the range be enough for markets like North America? Looking at comparable models (there aren’t many) it would seem that it’s on the low side. But critically it’s not that far off from other models in its space.
EPA Range | Starting MSRP | |
Volvo XC40 Recharge | 223 | $55,300 |
Tesla Model Y | 279 | $53,380 |
Kia EV6 | 310 | $50,025 |
Polstar 2 | 270 | $49,800 |
Nissan Ariya | 304 | $48,485 |
Subaru Soltara | 228 | $46,220 |
Mustang Mach E | 315 | $45,995 |
Hyundai Ionic 5 | 303 | $45,295 |
Tesla Model 3 | 272 | $44,380 |
Toyota bZ4X | 252 | $43,335 |
VW ID 4 | 204 | $40,290 |
Kia Niro | 253 | $40,875 |
MINI Countryman SE | 204 | $39,000 (*estimated) |
Volvo EX30 | 275 | $36,145 |
Nissan Leaf S Plus | 226 | $36,040 |
Hyundai Kona Electric | 258 | $34,885 |
MINI Cooper SE (F56) | 114 | $30,895 |
Nissan Leaf | 149 | $29,135 |
Chevy Bolt EUV | 247 | $28,795 |
Chevy Bolt EV | 259 | $27,495 |
Of course range is only only key data point. There’s charging speed, overall efficiency and of course that all important fun to drive data point. But that aside there’s no question the U25 electric Countryman SE will have range on the lower end of its market. Despite it bring not that far off of cars like the VW ID4 and the Nissan Leaf S Plus, will its EPA range of just over 200 miles be enough? What do you think? Does the design, performance and quality of the MINI Countryman make up for a range that’s marginally lower than some of the competitors?
MINI will debut the 2024 MINI Countryman (labeled a 2025 in the US) in the second half of 2023 with an all-out model onslaught. Based on our sources, this is what we expect to see in terms of production timing:
U25 / Leipzig, Germany | Start of Production |
U25 ICE Countryman | 11/2023 |
U25 ICE Countryman S | 11/2023* |
U25 ICE Countryman JCW | 03/2023* |
U25 BEV Countryman E | 03/2024 |
U25 BEV Countryman SE | 03/2024* |
U25 BEV Countryman JCW | TBD* |