In search of the perfect EV: Life with the Mini Electric

Will everyone agree? No. And that’s why I strongly suspect sales will be slow as a result; as sluggish take-up of the first-generation Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe showed, this sort of range has never been reassuring enough to guarantee a stampede of interest (especially when the aforementioned rivals now offer twice the range for much the same price). But for some people, if not you, unquestionably it will be just fine.

So let’s suppose you can get over the limitations (and if you want to own a premium electric car, you might have to for a good few years, such is the reality of the cost differential between a battery and motor and an engine). Maybe you just don’t drive far every day. Or maybe, like us, you live in or around the edges of a big city, commute 20 miles on a big day and travel maybe 40 to see friends every so often. Maybe, also like us, you own a second, engined car, which is always there to get you where you need to go on the few occasions you need more. Or maybe even another electric car – like a Tesla, Hyundai Kona Electric or Kia e-Niro – that will do 250 miles, or a plug-in hybrid.

If all these things describe you, you’re free to rate the Mini not in the isolation of its strengths of weaknesses but rather the totality of how it fits into your life. And then you will discover that, in execution, the Mini is near-flawless, if at times a little puzzling. What it’s short of, you would expect a Mini to be short of. Space and practicality are inevitably high on that list, although we did bobble around as a tall family of four easily enough. What it has, more strikingly, ranges from the charming good looks through to the ease that comes with driving such a compact car, plus what has always been an interior that makes every time you drop into the low driver’s seat feel like arriving at a party.

Mix in the design flourishes, from the acid-yellow paintwork touches through to the now hastily renamed Corona three-pin plug wheels, and you have a car that oozes appeal.

Unquestionably, the driving experience is also something of an occasion for the uninitiated. The 181bhp, 199lb ft electric motor comes from the BMW i3s and is attention-grabbingly rapid if you shove the throttle from low speed and with one of the sportier powertrain settings selected, although driving like this is, similar to being on the motorway, a surefire way to gobble up range; a single surge takes anything up to five miles off the indicator in the blink of an eye.

This, certainly, is a flaw, for while enthusiastic driving has always come with a penalty, there’s no escaping that here the 32.6kWh battery pack’s range is to be cherished more than petrol. It’s a pity, too, that the range indicator is inherently optimistic; you might do a mile for a mile in free-flowing city driving, but you lose rather faster than it thinks you will pretty much everywhere else. Here, still, Hyundai and Kia set the standard, and EV makers the world over would do well to understand the significance of the confidence that comes with realistic range estimates.

Unlike in the i3s, power is delivered through the front axle, which is a possible contributor to the aforementioned tendency to wash out if you really push on. That Mini hasn’t been able to overcome the forces of physics (it records a 1770kg gross vehicle weight that would make Sir Alec Issigonis’s head spin) should be no surprise, nor dent the appeal for most owners, but it is a pity that the sporty side of the promise only goes so far and ultimately isn’t entirely delivered on. In that regard, the Mini Electric is a reminder that the dream of an electric hot hatch that can match today’s end-of-era heroes remains some way down the development line.

Yet these shortcomings aren’t enough to undermine the opening premise. The Mini Electric is a great car. It was intriguing to read Steve Cropley recently describe the Honda E, surely one of its fiercest rivals, as a five-star car for desirability, wrapped in a four-star package, undermined as here by its price and range. If that sounds ridiculous – and I can imagine eyes rolling as you rattle off examples of other things that would be good if only they were just a bit more useful and weren’t so damned expensive – I urge you try one and then come back denying that you’re somehow smitten.

Nobody will buy this Mini to ponder the answer to a philosophical question but, after driving it, if you’re still wavering, I feel reasonably strongly that it can only be because this is a car that challenges a now ingrained expectation that our vehicles should do everything all of the time.

The Mini Electric doesn’t suit everyone and isn’t capable or well-priced enough to take an automatic place on the shortlist of even those who it does appeal to. But times are changing and, if you want to enjoy the ride, we may all have to accept that this is the price you have to pay.

The Mini Electric offers small change for less range

Back in 2015, research company Bloomberg-NEF estimated that 57% of the cost of the average electric car was for the battery. An engine, in contrast, was typically around 15% of the cost.

However, battery prices are tumbling: the price per kilowatt-hour of battery capacity was estimated by Renault – EV pioneer with the Zoe – to be £932 back in 2010, whereas by 2018 it had fallen to £144. It’s predicted to dip below £81 by 2024. Chiefly, increased lithium and cobalt supply – via more mining – is credited with the drop.

The difficulty for the buyer, however, is the varying strategies of manufacturers. Renault and Nissan can offer a 200-plus-mile car for nigh-on the price that Honda and Mini are asking for 120 miles. Hyundai and Kia, meanwhile, offer a third more again for about 20% more money.