Month: September 2023

Enlarge / It's recognizably a mini, but with a bold modern look. (credit: Mini)

The 2020 Mini Cooper SE showed that an all-electric Mini could deliver big electric vehicle fun in a little package. However, the real-world viability of that wee bundle was saddled with terminally short longevity: just 110 miles (177 km) of range. For 2025, Mini is leaning into electrification in a big way. Next year's Cooper E and SE carry on that emissions-free legacy, now with some decent range to match.

Mini has done some re-shuffling of its models and trims, so let's start by sorting that out. First up is the Mini Cooper, which going forward is the name for the three- or five-door configurations, including the Convertible. While there are gas-burning Cooper and Cooper S models coming, today Mini is only unveiling the purely electric Cooper E and SE, which will be built on a wholly different platform.

Those Coopers will be available in four purely cosmetic trims: Essential, Classic, Favoured, and JCW (which features black logos, racing stripes, and a Chili Red roof).

Enlarge / It's recognizably a mini, but with a bold modern look. (credit: Mini)

The 2020 Mini Cooper SE showed that an all-electric Mini could deliver big electric vehicle fun in a little package. However, the real-world viability of that wee bundle was saddled with terminally short longevity: just 110 miles (177 km) of range. For 2025, Mini is leaning into electrification in a big way. Next year's Cooper E and SE carry on that emissions-free legacy, now with some decent range to match.

Mini has done some re-shuffling of its models and trims, so let's start by sorting that out. First up is the Mini Cooper, which going forward is the name for the three- or five-door configurations, including the Convertible. While there are gas-burning Cooper and Cooper S models coming, today Mini is only unveiling the purely electric Cooper E and SE, which will be built on a wholly different platform.

Those Coopers will be available in four purely cosmetic trims: Essential, Classic, Favoured, and JCW (which features black logos, racing stripes, and a Chili Red roof).

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

August was an eventful month for driverless taxis in San Francisco. On August 10, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to allow Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise to begin charging customers for driverless taxi rides across the city. A week later, Cruise vehicles were involved in two serious crashes within hours of one another. The next day, the California Department of Motor Vehicles demanded that Cruise cut its driverless taxi fleet in half while these crashes were investigated.

A few days later, New York Times reporter Cade Metz appeared on the Times’s flagship podcast, The Daily, to discuss these developments and the state of the self-driving industry.

Metz argued that in recent weeks, it has become “more and more clear to the people riding the cars, and to other citizens in the city, that they are flawed, that they do make mistakes, that they can gum up traffic, that they can cause accidents.”

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

August was an eventful month for driverless taxis in San Francisco. On August 10, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to allow Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise to begin charging customers for driverless taxi rides across the city. A week later, Cruise vehicles were involved in two serious crashes within hours of one another. The next day, the California Department of Motor Vehicles demanded that Cruise cut its driverless taxi fleet in half while these crashes were investigated.

A few days later, New York Times reporter Cade Metz appeared on the Times’s flagship podcast, The Daily, to discuss these developments and the state of the self-driving industry.

Metz argued that in recent weeks, it has become “more and more clear to the people riding the cars, and to other citizens in the city, that they are flawed, that they do make mistakes, that they can gum up traffic, that they can cause accidents.”