Dealing with change, chapter one
The Electric stays close to the Mini formula. Does that make it a good first EV?
Mini Electric Level 3 Month 1
The story so far
It’s Mini’s first serious electric car, with a small-ish range, swift performance and little to tell it apart from a normal Mini + As un-weird as EVs get, both to look at and to drive Range anxiety already kicking in
Logbook
Price £24,900 (£33,900 as tested) Performance 32.6kWh battery, single e-motor, 181bhp, 7.3sec 0-62mph, 93mph
E ciency 3.9 miles per kWh (o cial), 3.4 miles per kWh (tested), 0g/km CO2 Energy cost 10.3p per mile Miles this month
302 Total miles 1315
As potential EV customers go, I’m what you’d call a hard sell. I frequently need to do long journeys at the drop of a hat; I live in a mid-terrace house without space to park outside, so I can’t easily charge at home; I have a garage but it isn’t joined to my house and there’s no power to it, so I can’t fit a wallbox charger; and I’m a worrier by nature, so if anyone’s going to suffer from range anxiety attacks, it’s definitely me.
Treating the new Mini Electric, with a mileage range to match its name, as my primary car is going to be a challenge for both the car and for me. But in the spirit of adapting to change, I like to think I’ll come out of the experience the better for it, and it will give the car a chance to show what it can do beyond its design brief.
A more typical Mini Electric user would be part of a household with home-charging capacity and with more than one car. Based on research that shows the average distance driven by most drivers on a typical day is 26 miles, the Mini Electric’s WLTP-rated range of up to 145 miles should be entirely practicable for its target users.
Getting near that figure in real life is proving dicult, however. You’ll recognise this car from the London adventure elsewhere in this issue, its first proper journey. I set off from the oce, 90 miles from central London, with a full battery but in less-than-ideal cold weather. There are four different driving modes: Sport, Mid, Green and Green+. In the latter, which deactivates the air-con and seat heating, the estimated range suggested 104 miles. In Green mode (it was cold, I needed the heater), it dipped to double figures.
Despite driving well below the national speed limit, it needed a quick top-up at a motorway services to be sure of reaching our destination, and then topping up overnight at a roadside charger.
And then after the next day’s ⊲
photography in London, I had to charge it again during the return journey to Peterborough. So motorway journeys are definitely not this car’s forte.
I do have access to a petrol car for emergencies, and I’ll need to drive numerous other cars during the course of work, but I’m aiming to use the Mini as my main car as much as possible. I live around 15 miles from the oce, where there are charging points. So on days when I’m at my desk (remember those?), it’ll be more than manageable. But there aren’t that many normal days in this job, and at the time of writing (from my kitchen table), normal days in general are in short supply.
Our Mini Electric is a Level 3, top of the trio of trim levels, chiming in at £33,900 post plug-in grant. A basic Level 1 costs £24,900, comparing favourably with a regular petrol three-door Mini Cooper S auto, which would cost around £22,285 in base spec. Mini expects most customers to lease the car, however, with its own rates starting below £300 a month.
All cars get sat-nav, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and cruise control, and Level 2’s enlarged toy box includes speed-limit info, high-beam assist, heated seats and a reversing camera. For the extra dosh over a base Electric, our Level 3 spoils us with a head-up display, larger touchscreen for its expanded sat-nav system, more parking sensors and full leather upholstery.
But think of the bigger financial picture. According to Mini’s maths, conducting my average commute under electric power could save me up to £56 a month over a comparable petrol car. Some rudimentary arithmetic based on the miles I’ve been able to cover so far, factoring in the pricey public charging during the trip to London, puts the estimated cost per mile at 6.5p less than my Lexus RC 300h (on p122) averaged.
I’ve driven a good few electric cars in this job but I’ve never run one day-to-day, week-in, week-out. My personal growth starts here.
It’ll be manageable on normal days, when I’m in the o ce, but right now normal days are in short supply