KGM Musso Ev vs Mini Cooper

What's the difference?

Electrified utes are growing in popularity in Australia and carmakers have been paying attention.

While the BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) ute is by far the best-selling as it stands, there hasn’t really been any electric ute to go up against the poorly received LDV eT60, until now.

South Korea’s KGM (formerly known as SsangYong) has just launched the Musso EV, which is a purely electric dual-cab ute. It’s unrelated to the existing, turbo-diesel Musso and is more closely related to the current car-based Actyon and Torres SUVs.

Read along to see how this ute stacks up against its growing set of competitors.

Can it be possible that, between 1959 and 2023, there have only been four distinct generations of Mini? 

Besides the 1959 British Motor Corporation (BMC) original, it’s just been a trio of hatchback versions under BMW stewardship – the R50 of 2001, 2006’s R56 and the 2014 F56.

Now, in 2024, that number has suddenly jumped to six. 

The F56 has morphed into the lightly restyled and solely petrol-powered F66 Cooper range in F66 three-door (3DR) and coming F65 five-door (5DR) hatchback guises like before.

Meanwhile, the completely new and electric-only J01 Cooper 3DR joins the fold, along with its J05 Aceman 5DR crossover spin-off.

Despite their shared name and similar styling inside and out, the British-built Cooper and electric Cooper from China are two different cars. You can read all about the latter in another review, as this is about the petrol-powered Cooper range.

More of a thorough makeover and less of a total redesign, has it changed enough? Let’s find out.