The e-tron’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The SE Countryman doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Audi e-tron are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The MINI SE Countryman doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the e-tron and SE Countryman have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The e-tron has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The SE Countryman’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 6 points, IIHS rates the Pre Sense Front in the e-tron as “Superior.” The SE Countryman scores only 3 points and is rated only “Advanced.”
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the e-tron’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The SE Countryman doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.
An active infrared night vision system optional on the e-tron helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera and near-infrared lights to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The SE Countryman doesn’t offer a night vision system.
The e-tron offers an optional Top View Camera System to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The SE Countryman only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The e-tron’s blind spot warning system uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. The SE Countryman doesn’t offer a system to reveal objects in the driver’s blind spots.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the e-tron’s standard Rear Cross-Traffic Assist uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side and Automatic Brake Activation automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. The SE Countryman doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.
Both the e-tron and the SE Countryman have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems and rearview cameras.
The Audi e-tron weighs 1839 to 2148 pounds more than the MINI SE Countryman. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the e-tron its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 127 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The SE Countryman last would have qualified as only a standard “Top Safety Pick” in 2017.