Mini Countryman Electric long-term test: report 2

The car Mini Countryman Electric Exclusive Run by Chris Haining, sub-editor

Why it’s here To find out whether Mini's electric family SUV has what it takes as a comfortable, versatile daily workhorse 

Needs to Handle a long motorway commute without stopping to recharge; be at home in the great outdoors as it is in the urban jungle

Mileage 2397 List price £44,580 Target Price £43,700 Price as tested £49,600 Official range 275 miles Test range 242 miles 

12 November 2024 – Six chairs, hip hip hip hip hip hooray!

With my Mini Countryman Electric being A) a family SUV, and B) very sizeable compared with previous models from the brand, I went into ownership pretty confident on the practicality front.

Behind the rear seats, you'll find 460 litres of luggage space; that's a bit more than you get in a Volvo EX40 (452 litres), although it does trail the Countryman's kissing cousin, the BMW iX1, which has 490 litres. As boots go, it's way more usable than anything I've ever seen in a Mini previously; the floor is helpfully square, and there's a handy void under the floor – handy to store the charging cable.

For the first month of our time together, the Mini's load-lugging acumen was taxed with nothing more demanding than the weekly shop. Its boot proved to laugh in the face of our bags for life, and, with handy little netted areas at either side to keep things upright, it minimises the risk of flood damage from overturned milk bottles. What was needed, though, was a proper challenge. Something that might make the Countryman feel a little less smug.

Happily, my Grandmother recently addressed my plight with an offer of furniture. We said an emphatic "yes please" to six teak dining chairs – an upgrade from the four we bought in Brighton a few years ago and squeezed into the back of the Vauxhall Astra I was running at the time. "You're picking them up in a Mini?", my parents exclaimed, with incredulity in their voices. When they saw the hangar-like load area that's opened up when the Countryman's rear seatbacks are folded down, though, their doubting shrieks were silenced.

The process would have been even more slick if I could have dropped the seat backs from the boot, without opening the side doors; each of the three parts of the 40/20/40-split backrest folds with a tag of a fabric strap, which is positioned where passengers' posteriors would usually be. With 1450 litres of luggage room available, the chairs just kept going in, and once all six were in, I nonchalantly lowered the electric bootlid to shut them up once and for all.

On disgorging the chairs on our return, I could scarcely believe that they'd all been in the car, and all with so little effort from me. l certainly can't accuse the Countryman of sitting down on the job.

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