Let’s talk one thing first: this here—the J01—is a model developed by Spotlight Automotive—a joint-venture between Mini’s parent company, BMW and China’s Great Wall Motor. It’s currently assembled in Jiangsu, China although production will commence back at Mini’s “real home” in Oxford, England. Before that potentially turns you off, you’d be relieved to hear that it’s far removed from any GWM model you’ve seen and heard.

Because of this, the driving experience stays true to being a Mini. EVs get flack for their artificial driving experience; the Cooper Electric isn’t anything like that. Typical to Mini, it’s the car you might want to just take out and drive for the sake of it. That’s as good a sign as any. The steering is the best here—it’s extremely communicative, lively, and precise. The directness gives you the confidence to attack corners and enables you to trust that the front wheels are going to go where you aim them. With just 2.2 turns lock-to-lock and a fixed ratio, it’s also maneuverable in tight confines.

The big trade off here is its firm ride. Although the driver generally won’t mind, passengers most likely will. Thankfully, the solid body structure does mask the jitteriness.

The Philippine-spec Cooper Electric is available solely in the SE trim. That means having a front-mounted 218 horsepower, 330 Nm permanent magnet synchronous motor and a 54.2-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Those outputs put it well within hot hatch territory and on the road, it is. A squirt of the accelerator is enough to send the Cooper SE Electric rocketing forward like a rabid terrier. It’s quite portly for a small hatchback—around 1,605 kilograms—but it makes short work of all that mass. Its 6.7-second 0 to 100 km/h time is evident of that. There are simulated sounds to go with the powertrain, and they’re used to great effect. As rapid as it is, the Cooper is hampered by its decision to stick with front wheel drive. At full beans, it will screech the front tires as it grapples to regain grip. Luckily, there’s no hint of torque steer here.

Also, real-world range is something to be desired. The quoted figure is around 402 kilometers on a single charge, but in our three-day experience, we got just 285 kilometers based on our 5.8 km/kWh figure.

Being a Mini, the Cooper tries to be playful, but ultimately it’s overplayed. It’s very clear that designers want to emphasize its British roots every chance they get, but engineers, being German, ended up making it a caricature. Before, it was relegated to the exterior and its Union Jack taillights. Now, as Gen Z focused group probably dictated, it’s everywhere. For example, the drive modes here, called “Experience” lets out a “woo hoo” each time Go-Kart is selected. Or that for a week into your new Mini ownership, it reminds you to play an animated congratulatory video with Spike, Mini’s new digital assistant, dancing around British sights like Big Ben to the tune of Technotronic’s Pump Up the Jam. Honestly, at some point, we were expecting Philomena Cunk to pop out of the dash. Call us old, but it’s not fun. It’s cringe.

The same can be said with the Cooper’s much-fangled 9.5-inch center screen. Mini calls it a throwback to the 1959 original and it’s fine if it does just one thing. However, they’ve, for the lack of a better word, Tesla-fied it, and crammed everything into there be it driving-related info, entertainment functions, navigation, and climate control. It’s downright messy and hard to navigate in a pinch. What’s more, it can only display one type of information at any given time. Also, it relegates any form of smartphone mirroring into a tiny portion of the center screen which makes it difficult to decipher. The touchscreen also isn’t the most responsive. The best thing about this new OS is that it pushes out regular OTA updates, which we happen to experience ourselves. Once you downloaded and select to update it, the car won’t be drivable for around 20 minutes, so plan these things in advance.

Thankfully, there’s a heads-up display here, but instead of projecting the information directly onto the windshield, it’s projected onto an itsy-bitsy piece of clear plastic. At least all the pertinent driving info—speed, power, battery info—are directly in front of your eyes.

The decision to outfit the Mini with a solitary OLED screen is the interior’s one and only sore point as everything else looks and feels premium. By far, it looks and feels like a concept car made real thanks to its refreshing approach to colors, materials, and textures. It also happens to hide the harder, cheaper plastics that dot the cabin. The twist-to-start knob is a nice touch and so is the use of indirect projection for ambient lighting. The seating position is great and thanks to the deep-set dash, feels roomy.

On the flip side, the decision to outfit the Cooper with all these difference materials means special care. The knitted surfaces on the dashboard and door cards bring out some proper playfulness, although they tend to attract dirt as evidenced by the multiple grease stains in the test drive unit. The same can be said about the animal-free leather seats where musty smells (amoy pawis) tend to stick to.

Practicality is not a traditional Mini strength, and the Cooper Electric is no exception. Adults can fit behind adults here, but they’d be a bit uncomfortable. Regardless, the amount of rear headroom is surprisingly good and ingress/egress is trouble-free. Despite the power seats, a mechanical lever allows quick, fuss-free access to the back seats. Once the seats are brought back down, it cleverly “remembers” the last set seating position. In terms of cargo room, it doesn’t offer much: 210 liters. Storage is mostly for weekend bags or light grocery shopping. With the rear seats folded, the cargo hold grows to 800 liters, but the hatch opening can be quite limiting in carrying large items.

Going back to the question originally posted: is it any good? There’s no quick way to explain it as there are both pros and cons to the Mini Cooper Electric experience. It still oozes with character, feels solid, and drives well. However, it’s also saddled with infuriating interior tech, isn’t really that practical, and is subjectively expensive at P 3.3-million. However, fundamentally, it’s a great little car and it’s overflowing with personality. It just so happens to be electric.