Today I briefly swapped my mk7 for...
(Drum roll please)
... an electric Mini!
Curiosity got the better of me, having paid no more than a passing interest in EV’s due to none of them remotely floating my boat (Teslas too ugly, most other fast EV’s far too expensive and small city cars too boring and slow) the recent rash of good reviews on the MINI Cooper S Electric woke me up a bit.
Admittedly I’m a big fan of MINI’s anyway.
I had a few hours to kill and decided it would be a good idea to see what it’s all about.
The only other EV’s I’ve driven have been dodgem cars, and well, the MINI Cooper S is like a dodgem car for the road anyway.
On the outside it looks like a normal MINI with a few added yellow badges unless you opt for the Corona (three pin plug) wheels and ‘electric yellow‘ striping. The one I took out was a top spec (level 3) with standard looking exterior in a subdued and very dirty black paint job.
Inside it’s the usual very high quality MINI interior with the new digital dials taking the car into the next generation.
The performance was what I was interested in and it didn’t disappoint, very brisk low to medium speed acceleration which felt truly weird with no engine noise or gear-changes. Very linear, like a jet I suppose.
For me that was the drawback, despite the ability to pile on speed rapidly there was no character. If using jet analogies it could have done with a bit of afterburner effect at times under full acceleration just to inject some character.
The car decelerates rapidly as soon as pressure is removed from the accelerator pedal. That’s an unfamiliar feeling too but handy in city driving and can be reduced to provide an engine braking like sensation.
The sales chap (who Initially greeted me with the words “nice TCR, what’s it like?”) said the mechanics as the dealership were discovering the BMW and MINI PHEV’s are coming in for their second year services with only negligible wear on the brakes due to said retardation features working off the motor on accelerator lift off.
Most impressive thing to me as a shift worker was the ability to pre-program the cabin to a set temperature at a given time so it’s already either warm or cool when you get into it to drive. I like that.
Least impressive? Dunno, it’s so different an experience it’s hard to single out any particular negatives (MINI’s are very established anyway so you know what you’re getting with one). The power delivery feeling too linear maybe, but some would welcome that.
Verdict. I quite liked it. It was “different”. But damn did my Golf feel good when I got back in it!
I’ll take another test drive in one at a later date though being as dealers are swamped with MINI supplied demo cars. Second test drives are often more telling than first acquaintance.
On the subject of test drives, I took a SEAT Arona FR 1.5TSI out last Friday night.
A colleague of mine threw me the keys with the words “tell me what you think of it being as it was you that told me to get one...”
Well, what can I say? Roughly half the price of a Golf R, exactly half the horsepower and half the number of driven wheels. Twice as economical? Not quite.
Inside it felt like half the price of the R.
The performance felt about half of the R too, although in reality it is quicker than half it has a subdued power delivery but still quite fun to drive.
It handled quite well.
Verdict? Really good value and sharp looking. But damn did my Golf feel good when I got back in it.
Not that I’m boringly biased towards Golfs or anything...
Sometimes it’s not until you’ve driven something else for a time you realise once again what a great package the sporty Golfs are.
End of unpaid commercial.
