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Written by Jack Rix
Want to know how far electric cars have come in the last decade? Just ask the Mini Electric. Both of them. The first arrived in 2008, a test bed rather than a production car, Mini built 500 and leased them to human guinea pigs in the US the beginning of a data and opinion harvest that would inform the launch of the BMW i family five years later and every electrified BMW since. Fast-forward 11 years and you might expect performance and range to have grown handsomely, but I"m staring at the spec sheet for the new 2019 Mini Electric, and you"d be wrong: 204bhp (2008) plays 181bhp (2019); the range was 150 miles then, 144 miles now; 0 62mph in 8.5secs in the old one, 7.5secs today. What has changed is price and practicality the batteries on the old one were, er, chunky. Chunky enough to swallow the entire boot and back seats. The new Mini Electric, with its 32kWh T-shaped lithium-ion battery slipped under the floor is still 160kg heavier than a Cooper S, but you get the same (read: still cramped) boot and rear seat space, and with prices starting at 24,400 (or 299pcm) after the 3,500 government grant, it costs 500 less than an equivalently specced Cooper S, too. This is significant.
Date written: 9 Jul 2019
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 16259
Want to know how far electric cars have come in the last decade? Just ask the Mini Electric. Both of them. The first arrived in 2008, a test bed rather than a production car, Mini built 500 and leased them to human guinea pigs in the US the beginning of a data and opinion harvest that would inform the launch of the BMW i family five years later and every electrified BMW since. Fast-forward 11 years and you might expect performance and range to have grown handsomely, but I"m staring at the spec sheet for the new 2019 Mini Electric, and you"d be wrong: 204bhp (2008) plays 181bhp (2019); the range was 150 miles then, 144 miles now; 0 62mph in 8.5secs in the old one, 7.5secs today. What has changed is price and practicality the batteries on the old one were, er, chunky. Chunky enough to swallow the entire boot and back seats. The new Mini Electric, with its 32kWh T-shaped lithium-ion battery slipped under the floor is still 160kg heavier than a Cooper S, but you get the same (read: still cramped) boot and rear seat space, and with prices starting at 24,400 (or 299pcm) after the 3,500 government grant, it costs 500 less than an equivalently specced Cooper S, too. This is significant.
Date written: 9 Jul 2019
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 16259
