MINI Cooper vs VW e-Up!

The MINI Cooper costs £2,960 more than the VW e-Up!. For that premium it adds 29 miles more WLTP range, 35 kW faster peak rapid charging and 74 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the MINI Cooper comes out ahead overall.

The VW e-Up! is £2,960 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £144 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW e-Up! comes out roughly £2,880 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 158 miles for the MINI Cooper and 116 miles for the VW e-Up! - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The MINI Cooper goes roughly 42 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 28 minutes in the MINI Cooper and 49 in the VW e-Up!, so the MINI Cooper loses less time at each stop. That makes the MINI Cooper the stronger long-distance car.

The VW e-Up! is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 111 mm narrower than the MINI Cooper. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 755 mm of total clearance for the VW e-Up! and about 644 mm of total clearance for the MINI Cooper. The VW e-Up! also turns in a 0.6 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the MINI Cooper and 84% for the VW e-Up!. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.