Mini Electric – long-term review

The handover happened at BMW HQ in Farnborough. 87.5 miles down there in my old JCW Clubman, return home in the Electric. Instantly, you have to think different.

A breezy cruise down (although the JCW doesn’t ride brilliantly), then reality: the Electric’s digital display informed me that we had 90 miles of range – on a full charge. Do electric cars need to be ‘run in’, like in the old days? 90? Part of the deal with EVs involves second-guessing.

Mini’s 141-mile range claim was being roundly contradicted by the car’s own systems, perhaps the truth was somewhere in-between. Rarely have I spent so much time comfortably ensconced in the inside lane, gently abutting the speed limit without quite getting there. There’s something about an EV’s silent power delivery and zero emissions that makes hypermiling an appealing prospect. That and the paranoia that you might be stuck on the hard shoulder half an hour from home. BBC 6 Music stayed on; the aircon didn’t. It wasn’t a particularly warm night. As it happens, there were 48 miles of juice left in the Mini’s batteries as I parked up.

The Electric has four drive modes – Sport, Mid, Green and Green+ – the holiest of which was only engaged halfway through the journey. Rivals like the Renault Zoe and the Peugeot e-208 both claim ranges north of 200 miles, thanks to bigger batteries. Mini insists 145 miles is more than enough for most people, if you can get that, and it’s a claim I intend to stress-test for the next six months. Maybe I’ll even be able to use the aircon occasionally.

It’s a Mini, but the Electric makeover somehow alters its character. I’m bonding with it in a way that didn’t quite happen in the now departed JCW. That should be a gem, but it’s too flawed, tries too hard to be all things to all buyers and fails to deliver fun. Or maybe it’s because the Electric is much truer in spirit to Issigonis’s original.