Article Summary
- MINI shows off the Aceman JCW in Midnight Black with contrasting Chili Red accents.
- The crossover’s small footprint makes it ideal for a crowded city such as Japan.
- The electric drivetrain with plenty of punch is a good fit for an urban landscape with stop & go traffic.
The Aceman holds a special place in MINI’s lineup as the only model sold exclusively as an EV. The Oxford-based marque seemingly has no intention of mounting a combustion engine under the crossover’s hood. It would likely be technically possible, given that the brand’s smallest crossover is cut from the same cloth as the electric three-door Cooper hatchback. For now, however, it remains purely electric, even in its spicy John Cooper Works flavor.
The range-topping Aceman JCW poses in a new photo shoot from Tokyo, where the vehicle’s relatively small footprint makes it easy to maneuver around town. The BMW-owned brand chose to spotlight the “J05” with a Midnight Black main color scheme sprinkled with Chili Red accents. It may be a MINI, but stately 19-inch wheels come standard, and they don’t necessarily look overkill.
In JCW guise, the Aceman has plenty of electric muscle to tackle the narrow streets of Japan’s capital. There’s a front-mounted motor producing 255 horsepower and a virtually instant 350 Nm (258 lb-ft) of torque. With the sprint to 62 mph (100 km/h) taking 6.4 seconds, it’s one of the quickest-accelerating vehicles in this segment. The top speed, electronically capped at 124 mph (200 km/h), isn’t exactly impressive, but unless your daily route includes the Autobahn, the car is plenty fast.
The Aceman is most likely to be driven around town, making range more important than outright performance. MINI installs a lithium-ion battery pack with a net capacity of 49.2 kWh. That’s enough for a WLTP range of 221 miles (355 kilometers), which is plenty for a day in the city. For slightly more range, the John Cooper Works Electric three-door hatch can travel 231 miles (371 kilometers) on a single charge.
There’s no five-door electric hatchback in the company’s lineup since MINI worries it would overlap with the Aceman. Another EV missing in action is a convertible. Despite reports of a droptop without a gas engine, the “J03” isn’t happening anytime soon. The British brand had planned to build the car at home in Oxford, but as with the Aceman and the three-door electric hatch, that plan isn’t going ahead.
The Aceman remains exclusively built in China, meaning it won’t come to North America for the time being. Of MINI’s electric models, only the larger Countryman EV has earned a US visa. There’s a perfectly logical explanation, as the compact crossover is built in Germany at BMW’s Leipzig plant.
