Fully electric understudy to the Countryman takes a futuristic stance On sale 2025 Price from £35,000 (est)
Rahil Hashmi whatcar@haymarket.com
If the predicted value of the UK’s skincare industry in 2023 – a cool £3.24bn – tells us anything, it’s that people will pay top dollar to keep feeling young. And for those drivers who want to balance youthful vigour with enough space for a growing family, the new Mini Aceman might be just the ticket. Why? well, this electric SUV offers more space inside than the conventional Mini Electric, but keeps that car’s fun, cutesy image.
Don’t go thinking the Aceman is just a carbon copy of the hatchback but on stilts, though. In fact, with its large, circular LED headlights, rounded front end and rugged body cladding, the Aceman looks like no other Mini, even in the close-to-ready concept form you see here.You can expect the concept’s Union Flag-shaped roof rack, customisable LED rear lights and super-slim door mirrors to be lost for the production model, though.
Two versions will be sold from the outset, named E and SE.The former has a 181bhp electric motor driving the front wheels, with power coming from a 40kWh battery that officially offers up to 186 miles of range.The SE, meanwhile, has 215bhp and a 54kWh battery, which is said to increase the maximum range to 249 miles.
Those figures are competitive with those of the DS 3 E-Tense, which can officially cover up to 250 miles before needing to recharge. However, they put the Paceman behind the upcoming Smart #1; that rival will officially take you 273 miles on a full charge.
How long the Aceman will take to replenish its batteries has yet to be revealed, but it’s likely to be able to complete a 10-80% top-up in around 30 minutes if you use the fastest public charging points, usually found at motorway service stations.
The interior is similar to that of Mini’s upcoming Countryman electric SUV, with a circular infotainment screen taking centre stage on the dashboard. It’s much larger than the one in current Minis, which have a rectangular screen in a round housing, and runs a new Android-based infotainment system.
The infotainment system can be controlled both by voice and touch, and physical controls will remain for some functions, such as choosing between different driving modes – for instance, to maxim
