Snoopy, the new JCW’s look superb with their beefy cartoonish bumpers, and they do actually sound pretty good too, but for pootling around there’s no way they can match the immediacy of power delivery the electric makes. Use it for 90% local driving and it makes huge sense as it just picks up its skirts and goes at sub-motorway speeds. Once you’ve driven a MINI EV you’ll understand.
Tough choice though as the JCW offers a lot too in different ways.
If you’re going to get a MINI EV then there’s a huge choice at the moment as MINI have dumped it’s fleet of 12-18 month old cars onto forecourts around the country; at around £25-26k for a L2 they make a decent buy as a first foray into EV ownership in something that’s not as big and heavy as a battle tank and still has proper buttons and a decent BMW UI.
While there’s still a good choice of very low mileage year old examples about you could potentially pick through the colour and spec that suits you best rather than wait an age for a non discounted new one. As little as a month ago it would have made better sense to buy new but the prices have finally dropped on main dealer used ones. Used ones as a cash buy look attractive whereas at 13.9%
APR on a PCP they definitely don’t!
Adam, your mate has the benefit of the best of both worlds. Small EV for local use and Diesel for longer range. The right horses for the right courses.
Like yourself, petrol still makes best sense for me as although I have a sub 30 mile round trip commute in the week where the MINI EV would be superb in the lanes, my sister lives 160 miles in one direction and my father 130 miles in t’other. It would potentially take two charges just to reach my sis in bad weather. Mind you I only visit her about once a decade…
